Infantino looks forward to an expanded World Cup... and a new environment taking shape in football.

The 2026 World Cup will witness, for the first time in its history, the participation of 48 teams in an unprecedented expansion of the number of participants, a move that raises widespread debate about whether this change will reduce the element of excitement and surprise that has been one of the most prominent features of the most important football event in the world for decades.

This expansion is a direct translation of one of the main proposals put forward by Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, shortly after he took over the leadership of FIFA in 2016.

Infantino had emphasized at the time the importance of providing "greater opportunities for a larger number of teams," noting that the World Cup should be viewed as "more than just a sporting event; it is also a social event."

The history of the World Cup cannot largely be described as a truly global tournament, as it has been dominated by European teams and a limited number of South American countries, before settling on a system of 16 teams, then expanding to 24 in 1982.

In the 1978 edition, 10 out of 16 teams were from Europe; while in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the number of European teams reached 14 out of 24.

As for Africa, it had only four representatives during the first 11 editions of the tournament before 1982. Even by the time of the 1990 World Cup, the number of participants from Africa, Asia, and the CONCACAF region (North and Central America and the Caribbean) did not exceed two teams from each region.

The expansion to 32 teams starting from the 1998 edition provided a fairer distribution of spots worldwide, yet the 2022 World Cup in Qatar saw only five African teams compared to 13 European teams.

The increase to 48 teams aims to achieve a more balanced distribution without taking spots away from Europe, as the "old continent" now has 16 spots, compared to 10 for Africa, 9 for Asia, and 6 each for South America and the CONCACAF region, in addition to New Zealand representing Oceania.