Qatar is reluctant to agree to moves by Fifa to increase the size of the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams – and you can see why.

The tiny Gulf state was proudly announcing that 90% of the tournament’s infrastructure, including eight stadiums, would be in place by 2019.

Suddenly it’s being asked: four more stadiums, please.

The likelihood is that this is beyond the reach of Qatar, even with its vast wealth.

There’s already been talk of Iran being used as some kind of accommodation overspill and you would think that 48 teams, instead of the 32 they were expecting, plus all their travelling fans, would be too much.

Doha has had to restrict the tournament to a tight 28-day schedule to cause minimum disruption to domestic competitions over winter, when the tournament is being held to avoid the searing summer heat.

To expand it by an extra 16 teams would play havoc with the Premier League even more than is currently the case, as the schedule would have to be longer, so Fifa can expect a backlash if it tries to push this through.

But apart from a logistical nightmare, what would it mean politically if Qatar was forced to share its hosting of the tournament with a country like Kuwait?

In short, huge loss of face for Qatar and a big victory for its enemies.

The Saudi Arabia-led alliance - including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt - which launched a diplomatic and transport blockade of Qatar 1 year ago will be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of Qatar having to share the World Cup with another Arab country.

After all, they launched the boycott because they were jealous of Qatar winning the world’s most prestigious sporting competition in the first place and have been campaigning for it to be stripped of the event ever since.

In October a senior Emirati official, Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan, even let slip that the whole blockade would be called off if Qatar was removed of the World Cup.

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