FIFA has announced an extraordinary executive committee meeting for Saturday morning, the day after the election, where the allocation of World Cup places per continent for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the latter which is being played in Qatar, will be confirmed.

UEFA’s allocation seems most vulnerable to be cut — it has 13 spots and with hosts Russia would have 14 in 2018. One scenario would be to say the 13 spots must include Russia’s place, with the extra place shared out between CONCACAF and Asia meaning they no longer have to play off.

FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb said he would welcome an extra half place for CONCACAF, adding: “I’d love it!”, but admitted that UEFA’s block vote of eight members on the 25-strong FIFA executive committee posed a problem.

He said: “This is where the imbalance is. It’s not based on sport, it’s not based on merit, it’s based on representation. That has created a lot of the problems we have in football today.”+

Web , the president of the CONCACAF confederation of countries from the Caribbean, Central and North America, has publicly spoken against the proposal by Prince Ali to increase the World Cup to 36 teams.

Webb said: “The World Cup is a jewel of football and, for me, you shouldn’t increase the spaces in a World Cup for political reasons. You should increase the spaces in the World Cup because of the development of the game. Are we going to dilute the World Cup to appease various associations?

“No, we must have real leadership and courage to stand up and address it.