How many teams participate in FIFA?
2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
FIFA had considered the prospect of increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24, to reflect the growing global popularity of women's football and the Women's World Cup. However, on 14 March 2008, the FIFA Executive Committee decided to keep the number of participants at 16, concerned that more teams would dilute the quality of play. The idea of having 20 teams taking part, which had been discussed briefly, was ruled impossible to implement in terms of fixture planning and logistics. During the 2007 Women's World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter had campaigned for the idea to increase the number of teams, although this proposal was not unquestioned. In particular the 11–0 victory of over in the opening game of the 2007 tournament had caused a debate over whether there were 24 national teams on a comparable level.
2019 Copa América
Apart from all ten CONMEBOL national teams which are eligible to enter. CONMEBOL initially planned to hold a 16-team tournament by inviting six teams from outside CONMEBOL. On 16 March 2018, CONMEBOL announced three teams from CONCACAF and three teams from Asian Football Confederation (AFC) would be invited to participate in the 2019 Copa América. On 12 April 2018, it was announced that Qatar, the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, accepted the invitation to participate in the tournament. On 4 May 2018, CONMEBOL announced that the tournament would instead be played with 12 teams, the same number as previous editions since 1993 (apart from the Copa América Centenario held in 2016), with the two guest teams being Qatar and Japan from the AFC.