2022 World Cup is likely to prove problematic for Qatar

  • تميم

South American football’s most powerful administrator has met Qatar’s leader just weeks after countries including Argentina and Brazil called for the 2022 World Cup to be extended to 48 teams, according to Al Arabiya.

State media in Qatar on Friday said Alejandro Dominguez, president of CONMEBOL and also a FIFA vice-president, and emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met in Doha.

“During the meeting they reviewed cooperation between Qatar and the South American Football Confederation and means of developing them,” reported the Qatar News Agency.

“They also reviewed Qatar’s preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the progress made in the related projects.”

Earlier this month, CONMEBOL formally asked FIFA to introduce the plan to expand team numbers in time for Qatar.

Football’s governing body had already agreed to enlarge the tournament from 32 teams -- which is how many are currently scheduled to play in 2022 -- starting from the next World Cup after Qatar, in 2026. Dominguez made the request in a letter handed to Gianni Infantino.

In its only formal response, Qatar told FIFA it was “important that discussions are held on the operations and logistics of an increase in size of the tournament in Qatar”. Any increase in size is likely to prove problematic for Qatar.

The 2022 World Cup has already been shortened to 28 days to accommodate the switch to playing the tournament in November and December.

By contrast, the World Cup in Russia this year will be played over 32 days.

One solution to an expanded tournament may be for Qatar to sanction holding some matches elsewhere in the Gulf. However, that is complicated by the fact Qatar is at the center of a fractious ongoing regional political dispute.

The FIFA Bureau is made up of the six confederation presidents from the AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, the OFC and UEFA. Invitations have also been extended to the confederation general secretaries. The meeting will take place early next week.

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