With no other candidates stepping forward to challenge Gianni Infantino in his bid to be re-elected as FIFA President later this year the prospect of a 48-team World Cup in the future looks a certainty and the possibility of that happening in time for Qatar 2022 has increased as well.
Having become almost the ultimate embodiment of being in the right place at the right time, Infantino has quickly risen from relative obscurity as UEFA’s General Secretary to absolute power at FIFA helped in large part by the delivery of a 2018 World Cup that enthralled and entertained in equal measure, delivered no logistical or security problems and where the President's gamble of implementing VAR at the tournament paid off.
With the need to keep the member associations onside, both through sporting and financial means a 48-team World Cup looks like one way FIFA can satisfy both requirements, as troubling as the prospect may be to those who feel the competition is perfect as it is.
The World Cup has survived and thrived the expansion from 16 to 24 to 32 teams but the current structure lends itself perfectly to eight groups of four teams and then a last-16 knockout round.
Expanding to 48 (without extra matches being required or the tournament taking longer) requires that structure to be altered dramatically with one of the proposals raised being for three-team groups which raise the possibility of a team being effectively eliminated after just one match.
Money talks, however and 48 teams will pose no logistical problems for the joint USA-Canada-Mexico 2026 jamboree.
Qatar is a different matter and would have been even if the country wasn’t facing the political challenges with its neighbours that it current does but Infantino is riding the crest of a wave and will get an overwhelming mandate later this year for whatever his future proposals may be.