FIFA to delay World Cup plan until 2034 amid Spain and Morocco 'nightmare' - expert
FIFA will not be able to enact their plan to increase the World Cup to a 64-team competition until the 2034 edition in Saudi Arabia.
That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that Spain, Portugal and Morocco do not have the infrastructure to facilitate the change in 2030.
This comes after the news that FIFA are holding serious talks about taking the tournament up to 64 teams, after this summer's edition stepped up to 48 countries for the first time.
Wyness has made it clear that a 64-team tournament would provide a logistical "nightmare" for host countries, especially with 2030 being hosted across two continents.
He explained that the final verdict on the suggested expansion cannot simply be a footballing decision, regardless of how FIFA president Gianni Infantino sees it.
The 2026 World Cup is set to conclude with Sunday's final, but the discussions are only just beginning in terms of how the tournament could look in future.
Gianni Infantino trying to uphold World Cup 'promise'
Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Infantino is trying to uphold a "promise" to the smaller nations in a bid to retain votes for the upcoming presidential election.
The Scottish businessman suggested that the FIFA chief has become committed to growing the tournament to include more teams, in a bid to win personal support.
Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, he made it clear that "politics" and "commercial" aspects are heavily influencing FIFA's decisions at the moment.
"I'd be saying right now, let's keep 48 and that'll be Spain, Morocco and Portugal. If it is the 64, then Saudi Arabia in 2034 is the next one on the line after that. That's a possibility," Wyness said.
"It's a nightmare to organise. We've seen in the USA, which is probably one of the best countries to be able to handle it in terms of transportation and security, et cetera.
"Can you imagine Spain and Morocco, if they had 64 teams and the fan bases coming in, the immigration issues, et cetera, and in Saudi Arabia as well. Big problems in terms of logistics of those sort of things. So sometimes the way forward isn't just to expand.
"We know that Infantino is going to try and keep votes, and he's promised those countries expansion into the World Cup in an effort to try and get those votes. The politics and the commercial side are never very far away from it.
"But is it really the right thing for football? At the moment, I don't think it is. And so I would be saying, no, let's just wait and see and keep it in the locker for some time down the road, hopefully beyond my lifetime, to be honest."
FIFA delay response to Argentina incident
Ex-PGMOL chief and former FIFA referee Keith Hackett told Football Insider that FIFA must act after Argentina players held up a banner referencing the disputed Falkland Islands following their semi-final win over England.
Giovani Lo Celso held up a banner reading "Las Malvinas son Argentinas," which translates to "The Malvinas are Argentine."
FIFA do not allow anything that could be interpreted as political messaging inside stadiums, and Hackett made it clear that a "large fine" was inevitable for the Argentine FA.
However, the banner has since received support from the US government, while FIFA have delayed their verdict until after Sunday's final.