FIFA President Gianni Infantino will not hold a press conference following the end of next week’s Council meeting in Zurich ©FIFA

FIFA President Gianni Infantino will not hold a press conference following the end of next week’s Council meeting in Zurich, with world football’s governing body instead opting to stage a mixed zone.

The gathering of the top brass within FIFA will take place next Thursday (October 13) and Friday (October 14) and was due to be the first full meeting of the 36-member Council, the former Executive Committee which rebranded amid the organisation’s reform package.

Not all of the members will be present, however, after planned Council elections at the Asian Football Confederation Congress (AFC) in Goa were postponed.

This came after the AFC’s electorate voted against the agenda following FIFA’s decision to exclude one candidate - Saoud Al-Mohannadi - from standing the night before the election due to an ongoing Ethics Committee investigation into the Qatar Football Association vice-president.

FIFA traditionally hold a press conference after meetings of the Executive Committee, but this has been axed for next week’s Council discussions.

The organisation claim this will allow for better access to Infantino, who is expected to be joined in the mixed zone by secretary general Fatma Samoura, despite the possibility that it will prevent media from around the world who are not able to attend the meeting from hearing from the FIFA President.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino will be made available in a mixed zone following the Council meeting ©Getty Images
FIFA President Gianni Infantino will be made available in a mixed zone following the Council meeting ©Getty Images

Other Council members will be advised to pass through the mixed zone but they are not mandated to do so, while FIFA have insisted audio recordings featuring quotes from Infantino and Samoura will be made available to those who are not present in Zurich.

The meeting itself is the first large-scale gathering of the key players within the organisation since May’s Congress in Mexico City.

Among the crucial topics due to be discussed is the possibility of a 48-team World Cup, raised by Infantino during a visit to Colombia last week.

Infantino said the change could come in for the 2026 tournament, with a final decision due to be made by the FIFA Council in January.

The Swiss-Italian is proposing a format where 16 of the 48 nations would exit the World Cup after one knockout round.

The remaining countries would then compete in the same format as the current tournament, with the 32 teams taking part in a group stage followed by a knockout phase.

Infantino had originally pledged to expand the competition to 40 teams in his Presidential election manifesto.