The reporter reported coldly The proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup has caused a thousand waves with one stone, which has shocked the world football world. But this seemingly crazy plan to the point of almost impossible to implement is actually the latest attempt by FIFA President Gianni Infantino to make the World Cup truly "global". Since taking office in 2016, Infantino has been expanding the scale of FIFA's competitions, striving to promote the social and commercial influence of the World Cup IP to true globalization. In summary, FIFA's football world has seen four major expansions under Gianni Infantino.

Ultimately, he aims to turn the World Cup into the largest global tournament for all ages, covering all types of soccer events, in order to achieve a win-win situation ranging from human impact to maximizing commercial revenue.

Promote the "full coverage" of World Cup IP

The unified integration of the IP of the men's and women's U17 World Junior Championships, the U20 World Youth Championships and the Senior World Cup is the World Cup IP integration that Infantino's predecessor Blatter completed as early as 2007. However, what really makes the World Cup the largest sports event IP for all ages and with unprecedented global influence is gradually realized after Infantino took office. After Infantino took office in early 2016, in order to recover the reputational and commercial damage caused by the corruption case to FIFA, he immediately put forward a proposal to expand the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams in October of that year. In January 2017, FIFA finalized the 48-team expansion plan. Infantino's predecessor Blatter had been hoping for a World Cup expansion, and it took Infantino less than a year to turn the proposal into reality. It was Infantino's first shot.

Infantino's previous tenure at UEFA saw the expansion of the tournament from 16 to 24 teams. He also played an important role in the establishment of the UEFA Nations League and the determination of the 2020 Euro 2020 "all-European host", which is deeply impressed by UEFA's accelerated expansion of national team events and continuous encroachment on the national team event market. Therefore, after taking office as FIFA president in 2016, Infantino's position naturally changed in nature, and he immediately embarked on the most urgent expansion of the men's World Cup, hoping to curb the expanding influence of the European Championship and the European Nations League as soon as possible.

Therefore, after Infantino was re-elected as FIFA president for the second time in 2023, he successfully let the three bidders co-host the 2030 World Cup through the vertical and horizontal struggle between the World Cup bidding parties, achieving the feat of six countries on three continents jointly hosting the World Cup, which is a pioneering feat in the football world and Infantino's second shot.

Moreover, there is a foreshadowing for three continents to host the World Cup. It is to host the 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia to minimize competitors. Infantino withstood tremendous pressure from Europe and North America and changed the bidding tradition to give the 2034 World Cup bids only 25 days to express their intention to bid, which is equivalent to directly handing over the hosting rights to Saudi Arabia one year in advance. Once again, the purpose of placing the World Cup in the Middle East, which has been questioned by Europe and the United States, and winter is only to maximize the commercial benefits and influence of the World Cup.

In 2024, Infantino will change the U17 Men's and Women's World Cup to an annual event, expanding the number to 48 and 24 teams respectively, and handing it over to Qatar and Morocco for five consecutive years, so that the coverage of the World Cup in the U17 junior age group is synchronized with that of the senior group. It was Infantino's third shot.

As for the proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams, it can be seen as Infantino's attempt to push the globalization of the men's World Cup to the extreme. Inspired in part by his 2020 "all-European-hosted" version of the Euros, the larger number of teams and countries involved is enough to establish the absolute dominance of the men's World Cup over the tournament in terms of globalization.

The Club World Cup has been expanded to strengthen UEFA Force

In addition to the aforementioned major expansions, Infantino's proudest work is actually the new Club World Cup that he "founded". It was also his fourth big change in the world of football.

As soon as Infantinov took office in 2016, he immediately began to push forward Blatter's unfinished business as a former UEFA secretary general. FIFA wants to compete with UEFA's most lucrative club competition, the Champions League, and at the end of 2016 he proposed the concept of expanding the Club World Cup from 2019 to 32 teams. At the end of 2017, FIFA finally expanded the Club World Cup to 24 teams, and decided to replace the Confederations Cup in 2021, which lacked commercial value. At that time, the first 24-team version of the Club World Cup was scheduled to be held in China, which had never hosted the world's top men's football tournament, but it was forced to cancel due to the subsequent epidemic.

At the end of 2022, with the impact of the pandemic on the world of football largely over, Infantino once again launched the Club World Cup expansion project. It was confirmed that the Club World Cup will be expanded to 32 teams from 2025, and after the United States is confirmed as the host country in June 2023, the 32-team version of the Club World Cup will naturally replace the Confederations Cup as a test match for the World Cup in the future. Compared with the national team version of the World Cup, which has rich experience in organizing events and has a mature system, Infantino attaches more importance to the club version of the World Cup that his predecessors have never landed.

Despite the general opposition of European giants and players, and the difficulties in negotiations between broadcasters and sponsors last year, Infantino still relied on the huge influence of the World Cup IP to successfully complete the arduous task of attracting investment for the first 32-team version of the Club World Cup in 2025. DAZN signed a broadcast contract for $1 billion, coupled with commercial sponsorship contracts that were in place in the second half of last year, and in March this year, the FIFA Executive Committee, Gianni Infantino, made a high-profile announcement of the Club World Cup prize money of $1 billion, ending all doubts about the success of the Club World Cup.

Compared with the National Team World Cup, Infantino previously experienced the Champions League restructuring at UEFA, and saw the huge commercial prospects of club competitions, so he naturally regarded the 32-team version of the Club World Cup as the greatest achievement of his personal originality. He has engraved his name on the new Club World Cup trophy to prove it. Compared to the World Cup, which is already mature enough for the national team, entering the club market and competing directly with UEFA will prove that his ability is unprecedented.

In the end, Infantino did exactly that: last year, the European giants led by Real Madrid, the European league and the players' organization also publicly opposed the expansion of the Club World Cup, and even took FIFA to court. But now, there is no suspense that the Club World Cup will be held as scheduled under the huge prize money.

As long as the Club World Cup is successfully completed, FIFA will be considered a decisive success in the world club competition market. The IP influence of the Club World Cup will be at least as high as that of the Champions League. From a certain point of view, it is the successful landing of the new version of the Club World Cup that makes Infantino see the possibility of expanding the World Cup, Infantino is changing the football world, and the grand space of the football world is also changing him.