This year's tournament has been the first to feature 48 teams and the boss of world football's governing body says further expansion makes sense as "every nation should be allowed to dream" of competing at the global finals.

Infantino told Swiss media outlet Bluewin: "That’s definitely ​an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup. When organising ⁠a World Cup, it’s important to organise it for the whole world – not just Europe and South America – but effectively the ⁠entire world.

"Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup. ​You can see that the quality ‌of the teams is ‌extremely high – and it’s getting higher and higher, all over the world. If you ‌don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving."

Infantino explained that he considers the first 48-team World Cup to have been a "huge success", citing the fact that nine African teams reached the knockout stages after the continent was given 10 places at the finals.

The FIFA chief said: "Every team played at a high level. Teams from every continent scored goals and earned at least one point. Nine out of 10 African teams reached the knockout stage. At the last ⁠World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa. That just goes ​to show how ​important it is to include ​all teams – to give them this opportunity to participate."

The prospect of a 64-team World Cup was first proposed last year but UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described it as a "bad idea".

The European football head said: "This proposal was maybe even more surprising for me than you. I think it is a bad idea."