FA chief admits his organisation is powerless to stop World Cup expansion

Chief executive Martin Glenn has admitted the Football Association will effectively be powerless to stop World Cup expansion, despite retaining reservations on FIFA president Gianni Infantino's blueprint which will be voted on this week.

Fearing a dilution of World Cup quality amid plans to add 16 extra nations to future tournaments, Glenn admitted: "I can't influence FIFA

"My number one focus is how do we make England equipped to qualify and ultimately win tournaments, that's all I care about. I can't influence FIFA; we're one voice out of 211 (national associations).

"Our preference would be to keep the tournament smaller, because there's a quality factor here. But we'll try to influence the shape of it.

"Everyone has a vote and the smaller countries understandably want to be part of the competition.

"It's not that we're indifferent to FIFA, we spend a lot of time on that, and there's soft power that England can bring.

"The Premier League is hugely popular around the world, you can trust English football and that does give us influence, but we're one vote out of 211.

"The arrogance of 'we're the FA, we invented the game and we'll take the ball home if we don't get our way', that doesn't work.

"The key thing is how do you accommodate any changes in the most effective way for the teams, and also for the fans?"

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has thrown his weight behind FIFA boss Infantino's radical redrawing of the World Cup.

Glenn confirmed FIFA are reviewing plans for 16 groups of three teams, leading to a 32-team knockout round.

Any group-stage draws would be decided by penalty shoot-out - but Glenn has backed England to build new mental strength to dismiss their Achilles heel.

"That's the model that's being consulted on right now," Glenn told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme.

"But it's a consultation, so the end solution could be something different.

"There's no reason why England should lose penalty shoot-outs. England players have greater technical ability than ever before. It's all in their head.

"Our job is to make the mental resilience so that the players perform to expectations and don't bottle it."