La Liga president Tebas accuses FIFA of 'destroying football' over expansion plans

Javier Tebas, the president of Spain's La Liga, has criticized FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino over proposals to expand the World Cup, accusing world football's governing body of making "irresponsible" decisions that ignore domestic leagues. In an interview with Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tebas dismissed discussions about increasing the tournament to 64 teams as nonsensical and warned against undermining the employment the sport supports in order to accommodate a 40-day event involving a small number of players. Infantino disclosed at the opening of the World Cup in North America in June that talks were under way to expand the 2030 finals to 64 teams as part of the tournament's centenary, hosted jointly by Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Tebas said local competitions are what keep the sport alive and argued that fewer national-team matches would better protect domestic football. He said FIFA was "destroying football" and that Infantino should recognize that it was "over." No response from FIFA was immediately available.