Pinnick Restates Africa’s Backing for 48-team World Cup | Nairalaw

With the prospect of African slots increasing from five to 10,
the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has thrown its weight
behind the plan to increase the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to 48-team
format.

Africa currently enjoys five slots since the Mundial it hosted
for the first time in South Africa in 2010.

The proposal to increase the World Cup to 48 teams was proposed
by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and was expected to take effect
at the 2026 edition to be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the
United States of America.

But the FIFA Council meeting scheduled to hold today in Miami is
expected to take far-reaching decisions on whether to begin the
48-team format at the next World Cup in the Middle East in three
years time.

CAF’s Senior Vice President, Amaju Pinnick who is leading the
delegation from the continent to the meeting in Miami in the
absence of President Ahmad who was denied entry visa into America,
is expected to restate the position of Africa to expand the format
for more teams.

“CAF will definitely support the vision of (FIFA President)
Gianni Infantino if he wants this,” Pinnick told BBC Sport
yesterday.

“Why wait until 2026 if we can achieve it now? If you do it now,
there will be more money and more participating teams.

“In Africa we are going to have another 4.5 (places), which
makes more sense to us – rather than just going with five nations.
That’s why Africa will always support Infantino,” Pinnick who also
doubles as President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)
stressed with conviction.

According to BBC Sports, because of its small geographical size,
Qatar would need the support of regional co-hosts to stage a
48-team finals.

Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that a leaked
FIFA feasibility study into the prospect of expanding the 2022
World Cup could work if at least one of Qatar’s neighbours was used
as an additional host.

Stadiums in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates have been identified as suitable yet only two of
these countries would appear feasible at present – Kuwait and
Oman.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE severed diplomatic ties with
Qatar in 2017, accusing the country of supporting terrorism – an
accusation it denies.

“The involvement of additional neighbouring host countries would
require certain conditions to be met, in particular the consent of
the relevant authorities in the main host country, Qatar,” the FIFA
report stated, according to AP.

Qatari officials are set to meet FIFA leaders today, when the
FIFA Council will discuss a feasibility study organised by the
world governing body’s task force.

A final decision on the possible expansion – which would come
ahead of a pre-existing decision to have 48 teams in the 2026 World
Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States – is expected to be
taken at the FIFA Congress in June.

“Make it like a Middle Eastern World Cup, and what does that do?
It heals the wounds of politics. Football heals wounds where other
diplomatic moves fail, so they should capitalise on that,” added
Pinnick.

“Most (member associations) want it – I’ve done my own research
and spoken to a lot of colleagues – not just in Africa, but in
CONCACAF (Central American, Caribbean and North American region),
in CONMEBOL (South America), some even in Europe.”

However, Europe is expected to challenge the prospect of 16 more
teams and an extra 16 games – given the 2022 finals are already
forcing the continent’s leagues to rearrange their
competitions.

This is because the tournament will take place in the middle of
the European season, having been moved to November-December from
its traditional June-July slot.

Meanwhile, the global footballers’ union FifPro has called for a
‘comprehensive review of the match calendar’ and a ‘minimum rest
period between matches (of) 72 hours’ after the feasibility study
found the Qatar finals could still be played in their original time
frame.

This would mean 80 matches being played in the same 28-day
window between 21 November and 18 December 2022.