FIFA president Gianni Infantino favours further World Cup expansion

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is considering backing a proposal to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.

Infantino, who was elected as Sepp Blatter's successor in February, originally promised to expand the tournament to 40 teams during his campaign for the FIFA presidency.

However, that eight-team expansion would produce a complicated draw and some have now called for a mathematically simpler 48-team tournament.

In the new proposed 48-team format, 32 unseeded teams would be paired off to contest a single play-off match with the winners then advancing to face 16 seeded nations in the tournament proper.

However, this format has also been slated as 16 nations would be eliminated from the World Cup having played just one match at the tournament.

Despite that criticism, Infantino admits he is leaning towards the 48-team expansion as he believes it would promote the sport in a greater number of countries.

"I like 48 because it gives a particular flavour, but I'm still really torn," he said at a meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

"Everyone wants an expansion, some favour 40 teams, others 48. Everyone sees that the increase of the participation for the World Cup is really a tool to promote football in more countries."

A decision will be made on whether to expand the tournament in January next year when the FIFA Council meets in Zurich.

Any change to the tournament's format should come into effect for the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Meanwhile, Infantino hopes to have video replays available to referees in time for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

"It will not resolve all the questions and all the doubts that a referee can have, but that will help the referee to not commit big mistakes," Infantino said.