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FIFA president Gianni Infantino has proposed new changes to the format of the World Cup, including the expansion of the finals to 48 teams.Infantino, who looks like what would happen if someone shaved every single hair off George Osborne, had previously proposed that the finals should be expanded to 40 teams. Now he wants to go even further, though 16 of the 48 national sides involved would be eliminated before the group stage.Infantino has suggested that 32 sides would participate in a preliminary knockout round ahead of the main event, before the remaining teams would join 16 seeded countries in the groups. This would mean that, from the group stage onwards, the tournament would retain its current 32-team format.In that sense, it seems like Infantino is essentially proposing to merge the last stage of World Cup qualifying with the tournament itself, and presumably hoping that some of us will bother to watch. He's tried to dress it up in much more attractive terms, however, using words like 'idea', 'develop', 'party' and 'social event'.The BBC reports that Infantino has said: "These are ideas to find the best solution. We will debate them this month and we will decide everything by 2017."[The new proposal] means we continue with a normal World Cup for 32 teams, but 48 teams go to the party."FIFA's idea is to develop football in the whole world. The World Cup is the biggest event there is. It's more than a competition, it's a social event."We don't often go to social events with a mandatory qualifying round but, now we think about it, it would probably save us from a lot of terrible nights out.
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