Not for the first time when it comes to global football’s discredited overlords, the closing lines of Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who come to mind. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. Ever since the former Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino almost accidentally ascended to the Fifa president’s office following the fall from grace of Michel Platini the question has been whether the Swiss-Italian who hails from the next village along from Sepp Blatter’s birthplace represents a break from the past or a continuation of it.

Allegations that swirled about his predilection for private jets and apparent desire to use his new powers to water down the independence of Fifa’s oversight committees were dismissed by staff as rumours propagated by those who resisted the winds of change blowing through the world body’s HQ.

Even Infantino’s enthusiasm for his Fifa Legends side, with whom he was endlessly photographed playing alongside and flew to Mexico City at great expense for his inaugural Congress in May, has been put down by supporters to his desire leave the politics behind and focus on football.

Yet there was something about his throwaway line positing a 48-team World Cup that was pure Blatter. Apparently off-the-cuff yet clearly designed to start a hare running? Check. Capable of winning votes among those confederations disgruntled with their allocation of World Cup places (that is, anywhere but Europe)? Check. Completely ill-thought through and bearing only passing acquaintance with common sense? Check.

Infantino’s proposal for a 40-team World Cup, made to persuade floating voters during the presidential campaign at a time when all the candidates should have been focused only on the mess left behind by the corruption that had eaten world football from the inside out, was bad enough. It made little arithmetical sense and was almost impossible to implement without destroying the competitive balance of a competition that showed in Brazil that on the field at least it was still capable of delivering the goods.

But it is so very Fifa, and so very in keeping with the gigantism that infects modern football (see also Euro 2016, Fifa’s endless spin-off tournaments, Uefa’s Champions League mission creep) that, instead of ditching the idea and sticking with 32, Infantino has instead proposed expanding to 48 teams.

Not only that but in proposing 32 teams play off to enter the group stages he gives rise to the ludicrous prospect of 16 sides flying in from around the globe to play a solitary match before heading home again. Each of those sides would have to budget and plan for a potential stay of several weeks, bringing all their players to the host country for a pre-tournament training camp with all the attendant hype, before turning around and heading home after one game.

The new president may counter that Fifa would pick up the tab but, as with the millions wasted on pointless committees, congresses and publications, this is all cash that could otherwise be diverted into growing the game.

The proposal would be funny if Infantino were not so serious. Rather than boosting interest and TV broadcasting income, as he no doubt envisages, it just may go some way to adding to the growing sense of disillusionment with the international game. “It means we continue with a normal World Cup for 32 teams but 48 teams go to the party. Fifa’s idea is to develop football in the whole world, and the World Cup is the biggest event there is. It’s more than a competition, it’s a social event,” Infantino said.

The idea of the World Cup as a party for fans did not seem to be so high in his mind when he was insisting recently that the next two World Cups in Russia and Qatar would be triumphs.

The expansion idea is so simple minded, and so transparent in its aims, that it barely merits discussion. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that what the president wants he usually gets, despite the reforms that are on paper designed to dilute his influence, and the proposal is sure to receive serious consideration around the table of the Fifa Council next week.

The former executive committee may have been rebranded and expanded as part of Infantino’s reform process, but it remains to be seen how much else has changed. Won’t get fooled again? Don’t bet on it.