The pushbacks against the proposed reforms by FIFA for its tournaments to include the private sector and for an expanded World Cup, are not really surprising.

Since the beginning of time, human beings are known to have resisted any form of change, even if the change was to be beneficial to a people, the comfort zone usually is what people are comfortable with.

Regrettably, little to no research is ever done to check if the proposed changes could better the world or not.

Surely, logic must prevail, and the mathematics on whether the proposals would work or not, have to be undertaken.

A scientific study of the proposals would be ideal for all the football fraternity across the globe.

If the critics of the expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup were anything to go by, the tournament may not have happened with 48 teams.

According to the critics, it was logistically impossible to successfully organise a football tournament of that magnitude.

If things were left to the sceptics and critics, humans may never have reached the moon and airspace.

If things were left to the sceptics and critics, the aeroplane would have never been invented.

The ships and boats that carry humans, goods and products that serve the world and develop humanity would drown, therefore they should never have existed!

And cars, trucks, buses, minibuses, trains and other forms of transportation were too dangerous, therefore they should have never been allowed to function.

In other words, human civilization would not have happened if it was left to the sceptics and critics.

Even the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, which was Africa’s first, and the Qatar 2022 World Cup in the Middle East would collapse the greatest football spectacle on earth, if the sceptics and critics had their way.

But of course, non of that happened and in fact the FIFA World Cup has grown exponentially since South Africa hosted the tournament in 2010.

Record profits are coming in for FIFA and for the development of football.

Countries that were left out of the football ecosystem since the first ever FIFA World Cup in 1930, are breathing new life as the possibility of their lands being added to the global economic map through FIFA tournaments, events and activities has become a reality.

For far too long, few countries could qualify or participate in the Soccer World Cup.

This exclusion was never good and healthy for football and the world at large.

Involvement by more countries means more unity, peace and prosperity for all.

To date the majority of the countries in the world have had little gains to nothing from the FIFA World Cups.

The majority of the 211 FIFA member associations remain constraint and marginalized in FIFA World Cups for men and women, including men’s and women’s tournaments, events and activities.

What FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his crew at FIFA are attempting to achieve is what should have happened ages ago.

Football is the biggest sport in the world. 

It enjoys billions of people engaging with it either during the World Cup or elsewhere.

The commercial incentives that accompany football from local football associations and its leagues from amateur to professional levels is quite astronomical, the world over.

But yet, in many nations this remains only a dream.

The small business sectors from all communities that can grow if football was to involve all sectors in every country, would lead to economic and societal stability everywhere.

The jobs that can be greated, including the local and social economic development that can occur, has the potential to uplift billions of people out of poverty.

But inequality within football still looms large globally and within structures of football in all nations.

The proposed 64 team FIFA World Cup expansion and the FIFA Forward Enterprise initiative seek to level the playing fields globally.

For these are God-inspired initiatives to provide equality in football in all nations and people.

If football is truly, The People’s Game, it must empower all people and all nations.

Football can never continue to be dominated by few nations and people on-and-off the pitch.

All progressives across the world must support Gianni Infantino and his colleagues who want football to be inclusive and serve all people and all nations.

A new world is being born.

• Thandisizwe Mgudlwa is a veteran journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa