2026 World Cup: Can Gianni Infantino qualify for the 64-team tournament?

The 64-team tournament has two main plus points: a more natural format and more opportunities for developing nations.

It’s the latter that Infantino champions, especially since Heroes of Cape Verde.

FIFA faced criticism before the tournament and indicated that the additional teams would not compete.

Cape Verde then tied with Spain and Uruguay to finish second in their group. And the Blue Sharks gave Argentina a scare as they went into extra time before losing 3-2.

But the stories must be balanced with the edge of the competition.

Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Panama, Tunisia and Uzbekistan all failed to find a point – and this summer’s group stage held little threat for the top nations.

Add more teams and repeats of top-four seeds like Belgium (2022), Germany (2018), Spain (2014), Italy (2010) and France (2002) become difficult to envision.

Then there is the question of where to go further.

In this year’s qualifiers, the 64 teams that could make it to the 2026 World Cup are the additional nations (with their FIFA rankings in brackets at the start of the tournament):

AFC: Indonesia (118), Oman (79), United Arab Emirates (68).

UEFA: Denmark (21), Italy (12), Poland (36)

CONCACAF: Honduras (65), Jamaica (71), Suriname (125)

CONMEBOL: Bolivia (77), Venezuela (49).

OFC: New Caledonia (151)

Africa: Burkina Faso (62), Cameroon (44), Gabon (86), Nigeria (26)

Six of these teams are in the top 50 in the FIFA World Rankings – three from Europe, two from Africa and one from South America.

And therein lies the problem. Asia and CONCACAF are weak confederations; As confirmed by the performances this year.

Nine out of 10 African countries are out of the group stage. But only two of the nine Asian nations advanced and only three of the six CONCACAF nations – the co-hosts – made it through.

New Zealand, which gained one point and finished at the bottom of the group, was the only country from Oceania to be in the top 150 in the world.

There is an argument that if you extend again, you should give more places to Europe just for competitive balance.

But on the other hand, there are those who argue that bringing more teams to the World Cup will ultimately allow the game to develop more in those countries.

Infantino sells the expansion as good for the international game, but he must have doubts about whether it is good for the competition.

About a third of the 211 countries in FIFA are present.

Wouldn’t the group stage simply be a glorified pan-confederation qualifier?