Germany's Thomas Muller kicks the ball ahead of Japan's Takehiro Tomiyasu during the 2022 World Cup. Japan's win over Germany was a big reason the European team was eliminated in the group stage. | REUTERS

Paris – The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, with the expansion of the field offering opportunities to several debutants — but will FIFA's determination to have more nations participating remove much of the jeopardy which helped make the competition so great?

The expansion is the delivery of a key proposal made by Gianni Infantino not long after he became president of world soccer's governing body in 2016.

He talked of the importance of giving "more chances for more teams" and indicated that the World Cup needed to be seen as "more than a competition, it's a social event."

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