In the least surprising news of all time, there is probably going to be more football. The game’s determination to eat itself in the name of big revenue, not to mention pushing the physical wellbeing of players like some mad Buckaroo experiment, is unmatched. Gianni Infantino, Fifa’s president, has conceded that he is examining an expansion to 64 teams for the next World Cup.
Is it worth even feigning shock for effect? The 48-team World Cup was only ever a placeholder, another step along the road to a World Cup every day in every country just so long as the revenue generation curve never dips. Football has no new ideas, just the same ones bigger. I dunno, call them all Super Bowls or something? It’s the post-truth age anyway. Nobody cares if it makes sense.
We should point out that this is not a done deal yet. In his interview with a Swiss media outlet, Infantino insisted that the issue will be “examined and debated within the relevant committees”. To which I’d say that… sorry I can’t. If I speak I am in big trouble.
The most galling thing: this works as a concept. That is how they get you. You thought a 48-team tournament was flawed? You didn’t like the eight third-place finishers and countries hanging on during an unfair process? Yeah nor us, rubbish isn’t it. But we can’t go back to 32 teams now so we’ll just have to go bigger. What else is a poor governing body to do?
Make no mistake: this is a double power-grab. For Fifa, it is the perfect PR move to pull rank over the continental confederations. What a World Cup expansion – doubling the participants from 32 to 64 in eight years – does most is to reduce the intrigue of qualifying and reduces the chances of major nations missing out. It means that more than 30 per cent of all Fifa nations will be at the party.
Which, if you’re running the show and generating the cash, makes complete sense. You don’t want Nigeria, Italy, Cameroon and Denmark missing out and you don’t want the psychodrama of those nations playing out months before your tournament begins. Who knows, you might even sneak in a China, Indonesia or India and then that revenue is really cooking.
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This is also a power play from Infantino himself, who has had a difficult tournament. Sure, he’s probably had a lovely time flying to every other match and appearing on the big screen to do a wave like he’s on a Bond villain special of Blankety Blank.
But there have been… difficulties. Like the accusation that his close relationship with Donald Trump that included a political recommendation before the tournament might have led to levers being pulled over the Folarin Balogun suspension overturn.
Now Infantino, we must say, denied that Trump’s calls had anything to do with that decision. But the whole affair did provoke Uefa to release a damning statement about Fifa’s regime and, according to The Times, has caused a loss of support for the president within his own organisation. Infantino is going to get re-elected, but some of his other ideas may have been kicked into the longer grass.
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Daniel Storey: The penalties at this World Cup have been awful – I think I’ve worked out why Kat Lucas: The secret World Cup Panini traders of New York CityInfantino’s core support lies within South America and Africa. So what better way to firm up those relationships than by expanding a tournament that may, coincidentally, significantly increase the number of African qualifiers and give three South American countries (currently down to host three matches between them) an entire group’s matches each. Welcome to the Fifa bakery: bigger pie, more slices.
How should we feel about this – angry, sad, vengeful, resigned? The other way they win is through outrage fatigue. We are pawns in their game, helpless flotsam caught in a torrent of geopolitical posturing and sport’s powerbroking.
Sixty-four teams? Sure. A World Cup every two years? Probably. The 64th spot kept open and 26 autocratic leaders and techno-manbabies each getting to pick a player? Don’t give them ideas.
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