Fifa presidential candidate Ali bin al-Hussein used his manifesto launch yesterday to warn other candidates not to use the World Cup as a political tool.

There has been talk of increasing the number of countries competing from 32 to 40 or reallocating the places, with Europe pushing to be allowed to enter more teams.

Football’s world governing body announced it will make a decision on the allocation of World Cup places at an executive committee meeting the day after the election on May 29.

But the Jordanian prince said: “I am very hesitant about people playing politics with the most important flagship event of Fifa and possibly of sport in the world.

“We need to speak to all the stakeholders, including the sponsors. People are making promises to enlarge the World Cup but in 2022 they are making the World Cup shorter in terms of time frame. We cannot end up with a situation where mistakes are made again.”

The current Fifa vice-president also said in his manifesto that he could imagine a future tournament being jointly hosted by different nations — or confederations — in a similar way to Euro 2020, which will be played across 13 nations.

“The principle is that it should be rotated among the confederations but it still has to be based on the best bids.

“But we have to be open-minded. I think it is also possible that two countries from different confederations could co-host the World Cup.

“Look at Europe in 2020. A number of different regions or countries could host the World Cup.

“It’s in the past now but potentially the Gulf could have had a World Cup due to its close proximity.”

Hussein also promised greater transparency, including making public the salary of the Fifa president and executive committee members.

He also wants an investigation into how the US television rights for the 2026 World Cup — which hasn’t been awarded to a country yet — were awarded to Fox without opening the bidding process or any discussion with the Fifa executive committee. 

Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke has said that Fifa “did what it had to do” to prevent any possible legal action from the broadcaster in relation to the 2022 rights after the Qatar World Cup was moved to the winter.

by Kadeem Simmonds