Uefa has achieved its stated aim of 16 slots. Its president, Aleksander Ceferin, made it clear that would be his demand in return for supporting an expanded tournament.
Ratification will be straightforward given the heads of the confederations have carved this up between them.
The play-off tournament is a new idea. It may sound the death knell for the Confederations Cup given that Fifa has described the new tournament as a test event.
Fifa is keen to expand the Club World Cup as a summer tournament and moving the qualifying tournament to November may create the necessary space in an already packed schedule.
There are significant issues still to be resolved in qualification processes, though. CONMEBOL (South America) has been granted six slots. Given there are only 10 countries in the confederation, questions have been raised over how to make qualification an attractive proposition to broadcasters, etc, given the ease with which some countries will make their way to the finals.
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