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FIFA is pressing ahead with plans to expand the 2022 World Cup despite the concerns of some officials in the host nation, Qatar, whose support the project requires. The move, a politically perilous project but one heavily backed by FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, would grow soccer’s biggest championship to 48 teams ahead of schedule and require navigating some treacherous regional rivalries.
Under the plan currently being considered, most matches in the 2022 tournament would still be held in Qatar — which won the rights to a 32-team event and continues to prepare for one — but other games would take place in Kuwait and Oman as part of a broader Middle Eastern World Cup.