FIFA Men's World Cup

It sounds like FIFA is ready to expand the World Cup, but how big will they go?

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:35 p.m. ET

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Ryan Rosenblatt

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has touted an expanded World Cup field for months and after the initial meetings with the rest of the FIFA Council, he sounds very optimistic that we will see more teams in the World Cup soon. The question now appears to be whether the field will expand to 40 or 48 teams.

"The general feeling amongst them is rather positive towards expansion," Infantino said. "We had a very good discussion. The feeling of the FIFA Council is that giving more teams a chance to qualify for the World Cup is beneficial for football development.

"When a team qualifies for the tournament the whole country is in football euphoria. More youngsters want to play the game, companies want to get involved in sponsorship and the benefits to football as a whole are immense."

Infantino and the FIFA Council are meeting this week to discuss a number of things, and the 2026 World Cup is one of them. The process and regulations for bidding on the host of the tournament will be discussed, as will the tournament itself. That means deciding how many teams are going to make the World Cup and what format it will use.

Infantino believes that the World Cup should be expanded. He thinks that getting more teams into the tournament will grow the game and give the sport a boost in countries that currently miss out on the World Cup more often than not. However, many in FIFA have not commented on where they stand regarding World Cup expansion. This FIFA Council meeting will provide more insight than ever as to whether Infantino's dream of a bigger World Cup is a real possibility or simply the FIFA president's dream.

Early indications are that an expanded World Cup isn't just a possibility. It's likely. Now the real fight might be on 40 or 48 teams.

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