NEW DELHI-India captain and goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu believes a possible expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 64 teams could improve India’s chances of reaching football’s biggest stage, but stressed that the national team’s immediate priority should be climbing the Asian rankings rather than relying on a larger tournament.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has backed studying a proposal to expand the 2030 FIFA World Cup to 64 teams, a move that has sparked debate over player workload and the future of international football.

“From India’s point of view, it’s good because the more teams there are, the better for us. It’s not that busy for us anymore,” Gurpreet said. “I feel for teams playing in Europe and other countries, who are already playing 50-60 matches; it will be very hectic for them. But again, there will be a thought process behind it. They must have thought about how to do it, keeping the fatigue in mind and keeping the league format in mind,” he added.

The 33-year-old said the national team’s long-term ambition of qualifying for the World Cup should be built step by step rather than depending on additional qualification spots.

“As an Indian football fan and as an active Indian player, I personally want us to be at the World Cup as soon as possible. But right now, my priority is how we can reach Asia’s top 10, even Asia’s top 15.”

“We need to take one step ahead of the other, not jump straight away to where we want to be. That’s not the goal. You want to build one step at a time. For us, the immediate target should be to get into the top 15 of Asia and then take it from there,” Gurpreet said. (IANS)