The first 48-team World Cup -- more opportunities, less jeopardy?
Germany's defeat to Japan at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar contributed to them being eliminated in the group stage, just as they were in 2018 (INA FASSBENDER) The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, with the expansion of the field offering opportunities to several debutants -- but will FIFA's determination to have more nations participating remove much of the jeopardy which helped make the competition so great? The expansion is the delivery of a key proposal made by Gianni Infantino not long after he became president of world football's governing body in 2016. He talked of the importance of giving "more chances for more teams" and indicated that the World Cup needed to be seen as "more than a competition, it's a social event.
" - 'Natural evolution' - Certainly, for much of its history, the World Cup could not be described as genuinely global. It was dominated by Europe and a few South American nations as it settled on a 16-team format until being expanded to 24 in 1982. Ten of the 16 participants in 1978 were European, while by 1990 in Italy there were 14 European sides out of 24.
Africa sent a total of four representatives to the first 11 World Cups before 1982. But even by 1990 there were just two teams each from Africa, Asia and the CONCACAF zone of North and Central America and the Caribbean. The expansion to 32 teams from 1998 gave a fairer distribution of places worldwide, but still only five African nations went to Qatar in 2022, while 13 came from Europe.
The move to 48 ensures a more even share without removing qualifying spots from Europe -– it now has 16 teams, while there are 10 from Africa, nine from Asia, six each from South America and CONCACAF plus New Zealand. "It's a natural evolution. We want to make football global all over the world," Arsene Wenger, FIFA's chief of global football development, said in December.
"I believe that 48 teams is the right number. It's less than 25 percent for 211 countries who are affiliated to FIFA. " The expansion has allowed some of the world's smallest countries to qualify for the finals for the first time -- notably the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao with its population of barely 160,000.