One of the seven candidates in the forthcoming FIFA Presidential elections has said he wants to increase the number of teams in the World Cup by 25% to 40 teams.
The current UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino made the claim in an interview with the Associated Press. The election takes place on February 26th in Switzerland.
Infantino was only added to the ballot paper, hours before the nomination deadline. The UEFA President Michel Platini is currently suspended by FIFA from all footballing activity and is also one of the seven candidates. Infantino has confirmed that we will step aside from the nominations process if Platini gets his suspension overturned.
Both men were involved in expanding the European Championships from 16 to 24 teams and the success of Euro 2016 qualification is behind Infantino's vision to expand the World Cup.
"I believe in expanding the World Cup based on the experience we had in Europe with the Euros. Look at qualifiers now where some teams who have never qualified did and some teams which have always qualified didn't make it."
"So it created a completely new dynamic in the qualification. It created new enthusiasm. If you are serious about developing football it must involve more associations in the best football event in the world: The World Cup."
The 45 year old does not expect the expansion to take place until the 2026 World Cup at the very earliest. The previous expansion took place in 1998, when the World Cup expanded from 24 to 32 teams.
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