The 2026 World Cup will include 48 teams, split into 12 groups of four nations. Gianni Infantino has been re-elected unopposed as president of FIFA, world football’s governing body. Visit Saudi’s sponsorship of this summer’s women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand has quietly been dropped.
There’s a lot of change in football at the moment, and this week on The Athletic Football Podcast, Mark Chapman hosts a special doubleheader looking at the future of the game.
In Part One, Matt Slater, Laura Williamson and Adam Crafton assess the state of international football. Might a 48-team men’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico actually make sense?
Part Two is out on Wednesday and will look at the battle for superiority at the top of club football.
Mark Chapman: You know the famous saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? It’s not necessarily a philosophy that FIFA buys into. The World Cup is changing beyond all recognition, just months after we had “the best World Cup ever”. Why?
Adam Crafton: I went to Suriname before the World Cup, and Suriname are a very, very small football nation. They’ve never been to a World…
