FIFA delegates unanimously approve 48-team World Cup

FIFA’s council has unanimously backed plans by President Gianni Infantino to expand the World Cup to 48 teams from 32 starting in 2026, the global soccer body said on Tuesday.

The new format will be made up of 16 groups of three teams, FIFA said in a tweet sent by its media department, adding more details will follow after a meeting of the 37-member FIFA Council in Zurich.

Infantino, elected last February to replace the disgraced Sepp Blatter, pledged during his campaign to enlarge the tournament – a promise designed especially to appeal to the bulk of FIFA’s 211 member associations that rarely or never qualify for World Cups

In the run-up to the FIFA meeting, critics in the media and in the stands have said it would be wrong to change a 32-team format that, in 2014 in Brazil, produced a tournament of exhilarating soccer, unpredictable results and few meaningless or hopelessly one-sided matches.

The bidding for the 2026 competition has been suspended until 2020 in the wake of investigations into financial irregularities at FIFA.

The council will also be hearing an update on Swiss and US investigations into FIFA’s finances as well as a report on preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.