FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that discussions over a 48-team World Cup in the Qatar 2022 tournament have been removed from the agenda of the 68th FIFA annual conference.
Speaking after a FIFA Council meeting in Moscow on Sunday, Infantino said: “The dates have been fixed from the 20 something of November until December 18 with 32 teams in Qatar, and this is the decision and the decision stands and that is the end of the story. In this case it was ten associations raising a request and the South Americans rightly say; ‘If we have more teams participating in a World Cup, we will have more teams to have the quality to participate and who can win’. Chile, who is the winner of the Copa America, are not in Russia and they raise this question, so it is normal.
“Now what we will do is the administration of FIFA will discuss this with the host on whether there is a possibility and what this possibility would look like.
“If there is no possibility then we know what we have and it will stand to what we have