Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter has criticised Gianni Infantino’s plans for a 48-team World Cup and an expanded Club World Cup.
In an interview with German weekly Die Zeit released on Wednesday, Blatter said that “what is happening at the moment is an over commercialisation of the game”.
“There are attempts to squeeze more and more out of the lemon — for example with the World Cup finals with 48 teams or now with a Club World Cup that must be viewed as direct competition to the Champions League,” he was quoted as saying. “Fifa is encroaching here on something that is actually none of its business, club soccer.”
The 2026 World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada will be the first 48-nation tournament, meeting Infantino’s poll pledge of a bigger and more inclusive World Cup going beyond European and South American teams. The just-concluded tournament featured 32 teams.
Earlier this month, Infantino called for a 32-team men’s Club World Cup in 2025. Blatter announced in June 2015 that he would resign early as Fifa president, in the fallout from a sprawling corruption investigation.
He has long denied wrongdoing, saying in the interview that “I have never taken money that I didn’t earn — that’s why nothing on me could ever be proven in all the proceedings against me. That will remain the case.”
