As the World Cup 2026 reaches its climax and we prepare for these blockbuster semi finals, the conversation has taken a curious detour. Gianni Infanti...
As the World Cup 2026 reaches its climax and we prepare for these blockbuster semi finals, the conversation has taken a curious detour. Gianni Infantino, never one to shy away from a grand pronouncement, has floated the idea of expanding the tournament to a staggering 64 teams. For a man who has made a career out of diluting the product for the sake of participation, this feels both predictable and dangerous. But then again, I find myself glancing over the fence and wondering: is there a sliver of merit to the madnessLet's be straight with each other. My instinct is to recoil from anything Infantino pushes, because his track record suggests profit over purity. He is the man who gave us a winter World Cup and the allure of Saudi money on every corner. Yet, I must admit that the current format is a mess. We spend 72 matches just to trim away 16 teams, and the third place qualification rule is an embarrassment. It rewards mediocrity; teams can stumble through by beating the weakest side in their group and then park the bus for two games. A 64 team bracket, on the other hand, is cleaner. No more of that squeaky bum time nonsense where you calculate goal differences on a napkin. It is binary, win or go home.The real issue, as always, lies in the detail. The world is not a fairytale, and neither is a 64 team tournament. Qualifying, already a tedious procession of mismatches, would become an even longer slog. More importantly, can any host nation, even the United States, truly facilitate that many squads We are not just talking about pitches and grounds; we need hotels, training facilities, security, and a media infrastructure that doesn't collapse under its own weight. Infantino looks at a list of federations and sees votes; the rest of us see logistical chaos and a bloated calendar that will burn out players before the knockout rounds even begin. It is a classic case of a man who has never had to pack a kit bag telling the rest of us how light the load is.So where does that leave us Torn. The romantic in me enjoys the idea of underdog nations getting a shot, of seeing football's global reach genuinely represented rather than just spoken about. The pragmatic European columnist in me sees a tournament that threatens to become a farce, losing the exclusivity that makes the World Cup the pinnacle of our sport. Infantino will likely get his way, because he always does, but the rest of us will watch with a knowing sigh. A cleaner format sounds lovely on paper, but only if you ignore the noise of 50 extra teams and the stench of commercial greed filling the air.
