Africa will have more than seven slots at 2026 World Cup – FIFA President

The President of Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), Mr. Gianni Infantino, has stated that, his top most priority is to help invest and develop football in Africa.
He said, as part of his reforms, Africa will have more than seven representatives in the FIFA World Cup after QATAR 2022.

“Africa has been my biggest priority, since I assumed this position, we have to help develop football on this continent, there is a potential and we have to exploit it not only with words but with concrete actions and we have started putting them in place and together we can make the difference.

“Many people taught my promises were just propaganda, but I have the habit of putting actions behind words, I do my best to achieve my set targets. I said during my campaign that when I’m elected as president, my General Secretary would not come from Europe but an African and now in the history of FIFA, the General Secretary is a female from Africa.

“We have also increased the number of members of the FIFA Executive board from four to seven and one of these seven is Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi who is representing Africa.

“I said in my campaign that we should have forty teams in the world cup and out of the forty, seven must come from Africa, others were not in agreement or support with this including Africa, but what we have done afterwards is not only increasing to forty but to forty-eight teams and Africa representation will definitely be more than seven, we are not certain on the precise number but am sure it will certainly be more.” He noted.

According to Mr. Infantino, “We have opened the door for African representatives to come and assist as in our summit all over the world. We have organized meetings in Paris, Doha, and Johannesburg and next week we will be in London. I know with this, we can exchange great networks and assist each other.

“There have been goal projects for Africa over the years and until last year FIFA was investing 27 million dollars, every for the Africa association, after being elected, FIFA is investing 94 million dollars in Africa every year and this has been allocated for the development of Africa football.

“There is such a big passion for football in Africa and we need to channel a little bit of this passion to structuring, the future will become present for all of us.” Mr. Infatino said.