DOHA: Political tensions won’t prevent FIFA from deciding whether to place some World Cup games outside Qatar, the head of world football’s governing body said on Thursday.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino used a summit of football nations in Qatar to gather support for his mission to add 16 teams to the 2022 tournament a move that would require the tiny, energy-rich nation sharing games in the region. That would be complicated by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cutting ties with Qatar in 2017 in an ongoing political dispute that prevents flights between Doha and the boycotting countries.

They accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism and being too close to Iran. Doha denies the charges and says its rivals are seeking regime change in Qatar.

Qatar won a vote in 2010 to host the World Cup with 32 teams and is only building eight stadiums. A 48-team tournament is already planned for 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but Infantino wants to fast-track that expansion and add 16 more games for the first World Cup in the Middle East.

“Is it feasible to do it only in Qatar? Difficult probably,” Infantino said. “Is it feasible to have a few games being played in neighboring countries? Well, maybe this is an option, of course.

“I’m not that naive not to know not to read the news and not to know what is going on. But now we are in football, we are not in politics, and in football, sometimes the dreams come true.”

Given 32 teams compete for the World Cup and there are 211 nations in FIFA, adding more slots in 2022 is likely to be embraced by the members given they have already approved expansion of the event beginning in 2026.

Infantino used a trip to Doha in October to ask the emir of Qatar if he would consider allowing matches to be shared with nations that are part of an economic and travel boycott against his country.

“If there is something that I could do which is good for football worldwide, then we should look at it,” Infantino said at a news conference in Doha before heading to Abu Dhabi for the Club World Cup. “I have the chance and I’m lucky enough to be able to look into that without having to be bound by any political considerations, but looking at it from a purely sporting perspective.”

Asked if he had held specific conversations with Qatari organisers or political leaders about holding some games in Saudi Arabia, Infantino said: “We discuss about everything but we didn’t decide on anything concrete yet.”

Infantino did use a speech to politicians at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina last month to discuss using the World Cup in 2022 to bring countries together by spreading games beyond Qatar.

The 2022 tournament is already being cramped into a 28-day window to minimize the disruption to top European leagues because it was moved from June and July to November and December due to the extre­me heat but Infantino said that a majority of national football federations were in favour of expanding the World Cup.

FIFA has said it will make its final decision in March, at its next council meeting, after the completion of a feasibility study.

“We gathered the opinions as well of our members, the federations,” he said. “So far, of course, the majority are in favour because 16 more teams participating not only means that 16 more countries will have World Cup fever, but 50 or 60 countries will be able to dream of qualifying for the World Cup.”

Infantino said a decision needed to be made by March because the draw for the qualifying competition is in the summer.

He said that, even with 16 additional teams, FIFA was committed to playing the tournament in the original 28-day period “because it was a difficult enough process to decide to move the World Cup to November or December.”

He denied that it was too late to make the change.

“For those who think it’s late, I’ve been told that the decision to move the World Cup in 1998 to 32 teams from 24 in 1994 was also taken only four years in advance so there is already a precedent,” he said. “There is an openness on the part of Qatar and that is something that I really appreciate.”

About any final decision, he added: “Of course, the first partner with whom we are speaking about is the Qataris, the Qatar federation, the Qatari authorities.”

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018