Ahead of the congress, FIFA announced that 104 matches will be played at the upcoming 2026 World Cup. 

A Qatar Football Association (QFA) panel will partake in the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, which will kick off on Thursday to discuss various subjects, including the election of the FIFA President for 2023-2027.

Representatives of the panel will include the likes of QFA Executive Committee member Hani Talib Ballan and Secretary-General Mansour Mohammed Al Ansari, with Head of International Relations Department Mohammed Fakhro also in attendance.

Last year the 72nd FIFA Congress was held in Doha, which witnessed FIFA President Gianni Infantino announce his candidacy for a second term.

For this FIFA Council, Infantino remains the only candidate for the presidential election as no other candidature has been introduced.

Once re-elected, Infantino will serve another four-year term at the helm of world’s football governing body.

In addition to the dialogue on the presidency, the seminar will review the proposals submitted by the member associations and the FIFA Council during the period stipulated in Article 28 Paragraph 1 of the FIFA statutes.

On Tuesday, FIFA revealed that the 2026 edition of the World Cup would move to 104 matches instead of the traditional 64 games, with 48 teams participating.

Held in co-host by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the decision completely reshapes the history of how the game has been played in previous tournaments.

The news was welcomed with varied responses from the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), which stressed the issue of “physical fatigue and mental burnout” due to the already existing congested schedule.

“The expanded World Cup format being announced for 2026 means that, yet again, more games are being forced into an already overcrowded schedule,” PFA CEO Maheta Molango said.

In addition, FIFA voiced that the 32-team Club World Cup will be played every four years from June 2025 instead of being played annually with seven teams.