Vital to have more teams in big celebration of football: Infantino

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Vital to have more teams in big celebration of football: Infantino
Gianni Infantino, FIFA President during the Dubai International Sports Conference at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on Wednesday.

Dubai - Fifa chief laid out the format and said that it won't prove to be a burden

By James Jose

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Published: Wed 28 Dec 2016, 7:38 PM

Last updated: Sat 31 Dec 2016, 4:43 PM

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has again reiterated his dream of having 48 teams in the 2026 World Cup, saying that it was vital to include many more teams in "the big celebration of football."
Infantino also said such a move was the way to go if they are serious about developing football.
"When you speak about expansion, inclusion, we speak about allowing more countries to participate in the biggest social and sporting event in the world once every four years," Infantino said at the 11th Dubai International Sports Conference on Wednesday.
"If we are serious about developing football, then we can invest as much money as we want to build pitches, to distribute balls but if nobody is playing on the pitches with the balls, we will not be able to develop football. There is nothing bigger in terms of boosting football in a country than the participation in a World Cup. For a country that is not always participating, to qualify for a World Cup makes a big, big difference," he added.
"Today, football is not just only about Europe or South America, is it also Asia, it is also Africa, it is also Oceania, also central America and we have to be more inclusive in this respect," felt the 46-year-old.
Infantino also laid out the format and said that it won't prove to be a burden nor the quality will suffer.
"We can have 16 groups of three teams with the top two teams of each group qualifying for the round of 32 and then straight to the knockout phase. Then we will have a great competition in which every match is crucial because it will be important to finish first or second in the group as the top two qualify. It means all three matches of the group are important. With such a format, we would have 80 matches instead of 64, 16 more matches, but all these matches will be played in the same number of days which is 32 days. The winner or the finalists of the World Cup will play seven matches maximum, same as the previous World Cups, in 32 days," he said.
"I strongly believe in it but obviously I'm not a dictator and this is something that needs to be discussed with the associations. They were overwhelmingly in favour but we will have to discuss it at the FIFA Council," he added.
Infantino, who took over from the tainted Sepp Blatter earlier this year, also said that his main objective is to bring the credibility back to FIFA after it was hit by the "earthquake" and "turbulence."
 "My main objective is to bring football back to FIFA and FIFA back to football. That's the main priority of FIFA - to deal with football, to do football, to develop football. But in order to do this, we have to bring our house in order," said Infantino.
"We have introduced term limits for the president, term limits for all the council members. We are there not for ourselves but to serve the institution of football for a limited period and then to hand this institution over to somebody else in the best possible condition," he added.
Infantino also spoke of allowing joint bids for the 2026 World Cup as well as FIFA's transparency over money matters.
"FIFA is generating $5.5 billion with a World Cup over a four-year period. So, it is important to know where this money is coming from, where it is generated and how it is spent," he said.
james@khaleejtimes.com
 


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