By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – As FIFA continues to prevaricate over whether to expand the Qatar World Cup in 2022, the Qataris themselves are taking a firm but diplomatic stance.
Hardly a week goes by at the moment without some fresh update – or simply a regurgitation of the various options – about the practicality of expanding the tournament to 48 teams and sharing it with Qatar’s neighbours.
With the geo-political tensions in the area showing little sign of receding and an agenda suggesting Qatar is not big enough to host 48 teams on its own, FIFA president Gianni Infantino is nevertheless insisting on delaying a final decision until the all-important next FIFA Council in mid-March.
Infantino said last week that a majority of national federations were in favour of bringing forward expansion from 2026 until 2022 but that does not factor in the reality that the tournament is already being shoehorned into 28 days – four fewer than usual. European leagues, who are already set to lose peak weeks from their season, insist FIFA cannot have any more days from their November 21-December 18 schedule.
An added complication is that a 48-team competition within 28 days would likely require six games to be played on some days in order to complete the full 80-game format.
With the 2022 World Cup final scheduled for four years today, Nasser Al Khater, Assistant Secretary General for Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, told Reuters: “FIFA is undergoing a feasibility study and is now in the consultation process, and we don’t have any details to know what the feasibility study has.”
The study is expected to include aspects of scheduling, the number of required venues, training sites, and how many games per day would be played under an expanded format.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are still enforcing a diplomatic and trade boycott of Qatar, a situation that has hugely complicated the prospect of sharing the tournament under an expanded format though in theory Qatar could share with the likes of Oman, Iran – and even Turkey.
“We need to remember that Qatar won the right to host the World Cup with a 32-team World Cup, so at the end of the day, FIFS will take the decision with Qatar, and only if Qatar agrees,” said al-Khater who then gave the strongest hint yet that the tournament will most likely stay at 32 teams.
“Who actually is ready with four years to go? You have to see FIFA-compliant stadiums, FIFA-compliant training sites, the correct infrastructure. These are things that have to be discussed first,” he said.
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