FIFA president Gianni Infantino has not ruled out increasing the number of teams participating at the 2022 World Cup to 48 .

Qatar will host the next edition of football’s global event after beating off competition from the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

Since 1998 there have been 32 teams competing at the World Cup, and that is expected to be the same in three years’ time.

However, from the 2026 tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada there will be an extra 16 nations present after FIFA voted through to expand the format in January 2017 .

Infantino was a supporter of the expansion and the president of football’s world governing body would be open to bringing the changes forward.