Fans could be in for another twist in the long-running saga in 2022, with FIFA officials hinting that the World Cup could expand. So how many teams are there?424 Sports will be covering things!
At the FIFA Council meeting in March 2019, FIFA President Gianni Infantino referred to a "feasibility study" that had been published and circulated to Council members, which concluded that a 48-team World Cup in 2022 was possible.
The sport's world governing body has already confirmed that the 2026 World Cup will feature 48 teams, but they can now expedite the novel concept and are working with Qatar to determine whether they will submit a joint expansion proposal to the FIFA Council and FIFA for Congress this summer.
The FIFA World Cup has featured 32 teams since 1998 and will continue to do so in 2022 unless the 48-team proposal progresses further.
We will get a clearer picture of this in the next two months, and if FIFA and Qatar agree on a real move to expand the number of teams, it will be voted on at the FIFA Congress, which will be held on June 5 in...
With the 2022 World Cup qualifying qualifiers scheduled for July 2019, more than three years away from the start of the tournament, organizers will only have a relatively short period of time to get things up and running if the number of participants increases.
However, this is the point of the feasibility study: to assess the likelihood that the later expansion can be fully realized, and how best to implement such planned changes.
From 1954 to 1978, the World Cup featured 16 teams, while from 1982 to 1994 it grew to 24 teams, with the last six World Cup tournaments featuring 32 teams.
FIFA has laid out a framework for a 48-team World Cup in 2022 as FIFA has been planning for exactly what will happen in 2026.The 2026 tournament is scheduled to be held in , and , with the 48 teams being divided into 16 groups of three teams each. Two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage, which will consist of the round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finally the final, which will remain the same 32 teams for the 2022 World Cup!
