LONDON, June 26: FIFA’s Executive Committee seems set to turn down a proposal to increase the World Cup finals from 32 to 36 teams when it meets in Paris on Saturday.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter and other members of the decision-making 24-man executive are expected to stick with 32 teams for the 2006 finals in Germany, rejecting a proposal for expansion from the South American confederation CONMEBOL.

“There are just too many logistical, financial and sporting problems raised by increasing the tournament to 36 teams,” a senior FIFA source told Reuters on Thursday.

“FIFA has listened to the arguments and considered all the evidence, but the likelihood is that the World Cup will remain with 32 teams.”

As well as Blatter being opposed to the idea, so is Franz Beckenbauer, the president of the 2006 Organising Committee.

“From a sporting point of view 32 teams is ideal,” Beckenbauer said in April.

Blatter told a Swiss newspaper two weeks ago: “I will fight to make sure we stay with 32 teams.”

After its last executive meeting on May 3, FIFA announced it was willing to increase the finals by four teams — but only if the South Americans came up with a formula that won widespread support.

CONMEBOL put together a number of proposals which were distributed to the other FIFA confederations two weeks ago, and, along with FIFA’s technical reports, these will be discussed on Saturday.

One proposal from CONMEBOL that could have won support was that the 36 teams were split into nine groups, putting the nine winners and five runners-up with the best records directly into the round of 16.

The four runners-up with the worst records would then meet in two separate playoffs with the two winners advancing.

However, FIFA is uncomfortable with the idea of deciding who advances by comparing playing records as happened between 1982 and 1994 when the finals comprised 24 teams.

The Germans, in particular, are also reluctant to return to a system that might allow matches to be “manipulated” as was the case in their infamous 1-0 win over Austria in a first round match in 1982, which allowed Germany and Austria to advance at the expense of Algeria.

Argentina’s Julio Grondona, FIFA’s senior vice-president and a member of the executive committee, led the calls for the expansion of the finals after South America lost a playoff place to qualify for the tournament and Brazil were deprived of their automatic right to a place as defending champions.

Oceania will gain an automatic qualifying berth for the first time for the 2006 finals regardless of whether 32 or 36 teams are in the tournament.

The executive committee is also to discuss the bidding process for the 2010 finals, which will be the first held in Africa.

Six nations — Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia — have formally confirmed their candidatures to host the competition, with the final deadline for official submissions set for August 31.

FIFA will also consider whether to appoint experts to its disciplinary committee to specialise in judging doping-related offences.

The ruling body has approved the World Anti-Doping Code, but did so on the condition it will consider and sanction positive doping cases using individual case management, rather than using the standard two-year ban.

The executive committee will also have the opportunity to ratify the suspension of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association, which was imposed by the emergency committee on May 20 because of the “chaotic situation” within the association.—Reuters