FA is powerless to stop World Cup expansion, says Martin Glenn• Gianni Infantino’s plan for 48-team tournament faces vote this week
• Conmebol official claims Fifa has proposed merging Americas qualifying
Martin Glenn, the Football Association’s chief executive officer, has admitted his organisation will effectively be powerless to stop World Cup expansion, despite reservations over Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s blueprint for a 48-team tournament from 2026, which will be voted on this Tuesday.
Glenn said: “I can’t influence Fifa. My No1 focus is how do we make England equipped to qualify and ultimately win tournaments, that’s all I care about. I can’t influence Fifa; we’re one voice out of 211 [national associations].
“Our preference would be to keep the tournament smaller, because there’s a quality factor here, but we’ll try to influence the shape of it. Everyone has a vote and the smaller countries understandably want to be part of the competition.
“The Premier League is hugely popular around the world, you can trust English football and that does give us influence, but we’re one vote out of 211. The arrogance of ‘We’re the FA, we invented the game and we’ll take the ball home if we don’t get our way’ – that doesn’t work.”
Glenn confirmed Fifa are reviewing plans for 16 groups of three teams, leading to a 32-team knockout round – with any group stage draws to be decided by penalty shootout.
He added: “The key thing is how do you accommodate any changes in the most effective way for the teams, and also for the fans?”
Glenn’s comments came as Conmebol vice-president Laureano González claimed that Fifa has proposed merging the North and South American qualifiers as part of its plans to expand the 2026 World Cup.
González, who is also the Venezuelan Football Federation president, told sports newspaper Meridiano that the idea for the merger had come from Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
He said: “There is a suggestion from Gianni Infantino to unify the Conmebol and Concacaf qualifiers. This would have support if they gave us more places. At the moment, we have seven between the two confederations, plus two half places.
“If this went up to 14, similar to what Europe has for more or less the same number of teams, the idea would catch on.”
Conmebol represents South America, and currently has four-and-a-half World Cup places. Concacaf, which represents North and Central America as well as the Caribbean, has 35 members but only three-and-a-half places. Uefa currently has 13 places for 55 teams, plus one for the 2018 World Cup hosts Russia.
Concacaf is also a leading contender to host the 2026 World Cup, possibly with a joint bid involving at least two of United States, Canada and Mexico. Fifa could not immediately be reached for comment.
Guardian
