Following the tournament in Qatar, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has stated that the format of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada will be reconsidered.
The number of teams will be increased from 32 to 48 for the competition, and they will be placed into 16 groups of three, with the top two advancing to the final 32.
Infantino stated that this will be considered after the “success” of the four-team groups at the Qatar World Cup in 2022.
The group stages in Qatar featured some entertaining final games as countries competed for a top-two spot to advance to the round of 16.
Since the men’s World Cup expanded to 32 teams in 1998, the four-team group format has been used, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stages.
Infantino addressed a news conference in Qatar following a Fifa council meeting.
With the third-place play-off and final remaining, he said 3.27 million people have watched the games, compared to 3.3 million at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
