The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will feature 32 teams rather than 48, FIFA announced Wednesday, scrapping an expansion plan that could have forced the international soccer tournament to play matches in a neighboring Persian Gulf country.
The FIFA Council in March authorized the organization’s president, Gianni Infantino, to attempt to find a partner or partners for Qatar capable of hosting 16 extra matches. But the small Arab nation is locked in a diplomatic crisis in which seven other states in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have severed ties.
Infantino visited Kuwait in April to lobby officials there to join the tournament, the Associated Press reported, but the nation’s two suitable stadiums require significant upgrades, concerning human rights activists about working conditions in the rush to prepare the facilities.