FIFA is considering Oman and Kuwait as hosts of some matches at the 2022 World Cup if the tournament, to be staged in Qatar, is expanded from 32 to 48 teams, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The World Cup will be expanded from 32 to 48 teams in 2026 but FIFA president Gianni Infantino has proposed bringing forward the enlarged format to 2022. World soccer's ruling body did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A decision is expected in June, although FIFA has already warned it would be difficult for Qatar to stage an expanded tournament alone. Qatar has said it will not take a decision on expanding the tournament until it sees the details of a feasibility study from FIFA while a deep political rift in the Gulf complicates the prospects of sharing the competition. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and non-Gulf state Egypt cut political, trade, and transport ties with Qatar in June, 2017. The countries accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism, which it denies. The UAE's sports chief, Mohammed Khalfan Al-Romaithi, said last month that his country, Kuwait and Oman could all stage matches in an enlarged tournament. However, he said it would only be possible for the UAE to host games if the dispute with Qatar was settled. "I know that if the crisis remains we cannot," he said. FIFA Council member banned over resale of World Cup tickets A member of the decision-making FIFA Council has been banned for three months and fined 20,000 Swiss francs ($19,906) for breaching rules on the resale of World Cup tickets, the global soccer body said on Thursday. FIFA said that Lee Harmon, president of the Cook Islands Football Association (CIFA), had "mutually agreed" the sanction with its ethics committee in a plea bargain following an investigation which began in July, shortly after the World Cup in Russia. FIFA said the investigation concerned the resale of tickets for the tournament but did not give further details. It did not immediately reply to a request for additional information. Harmon, who could not immediately be reached for comment, has been CIFA president since 1997 and a FIFA Council member since 2016. His biography on the FIFA Council website says he has been a match commissioner and referee assessor at various FIFA tournaments and international matches. FIFA has been trying to root out corruption and unethical conduct after several dozen soccer officials were indicted in the United States in 2015, plunging the global soccer body into the worst crisis in its history. One of the measures was to replace the old executive committee with the larger FIFA Council, which has 37 members. CIFA is among the smallest of FIFA's 211 member associations and has been a member since 1994. — Reuters
