admin
ZURICH. — FIFA’s executive committee has delayed a decision on a proposal to expand the four-yearly World Cup to 40 teams as part of a package of reforms, sources close to soccer’s global governing body said yesterday.
Under the proposal, the tournament, which currently has 32 teams, would have been increased by another eight from 2026 onwards, the sources said.
The World Cup has been contested by 32 teams since 1998, when it was increased from 24.
However, the sources said the committee had decided to postpone a decision on what would be a highly controversial move.
Many people involved in football believe that 32 is the ideal number of participants for a World Cup, and that a larger tournament would be less manageable and suffer a drop in quality.
The committee has been discussing a package of reforms in an attempt to clean up FIFA, which is under pressure from a series of widening corruption investigations, not least against its president, Sepp Blatter, who is suspended and will be replaced at a Fifa congress in February.
FIFA said later on yesterday its executive committee had unanimously approved reforms to improve the global soccer body’s governance structure.
Among the proposals are term limits for senior officials including the president and a separation of political and management functions.
The crisis surrounding scandal-plagued FIFA deepened yesterday when Swiss police arrested on US warrants two more FIFA officials suspected of taking bribes.
Two Fifa vice-presidents were arrested in a dawn raid at a Swiss hotel on suspicion of accepting millions of dollars of bribes.
Concacaf president Alfredo Hawit and Conmebol president Juan Angel Napout were taken from the Baur au Lac hotel, Zurich, where several FIFA officials were also arrested in May.
FIFA’s executive committee has been meeting in the city, voting on reforms.
It says it will “fully co-operate” with separate US and Swiss investigations.
The US Department of Justice requested yesterday morning’s arrests as part of its ongoing investigation into corruption in football’s world governing body.
Hawit (64) is interim president for North, Central America and Caribbean football, while Napout (57) oversees football in the South American confederation.
They are alleged to have taken money for selling marketing rights in connection with football tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying matches, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FoJ) said. — AFP.
Online Reporter