Paris ¨C The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, with the expansion of the field offering opportunities to several debutants ¡ª?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 soccer¡¯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.¡±
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