FIFA said it discussed with Qatar if a 48-team tournament was feasible if certain FIFA requirements were lowered, but that both parties concluded an analysis of the impact of that decision could not be concluded in time for a vote in Paris. An internal analysis by FIFA earlier this year had concluded that Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Bahrain — three of the countries taking part in the blockade of Qatar — could not be considered as potential co-hosts as long as the two-year-old blockade remained in effect.

The 2022 World Cup “will therefore remain as originally planned with 32 teams,” FIFA said, “and no proposal will be submitted at the next FIFA Congress on 5 June.”

Qatar, which has prepared for a 32-team tournament in eight stadiums since winning the hosting rights in 2010, had made clear its reservations about its ability to accommodate an expanded event. And its gulf neighbor Oman, one of two neutral countries that FIFA had pinned its hopes on to absorb some of the added matches required by a 48-team field, said recently that it could not prepare itself in time.

“Qatar had always been open to the idea of an expanded tournament in 2022 had a viable operating model been found and had all parties concluded that an expanded 48-team edition was in the best interest of football and Qatar as the host nation,” Qatar’s organizers said in their own statement Wednesday. With the first matches of the 2022 World Cup qualifying cycle set for June in Asia, Qatari officials and FIFA concluded they had run out of time to pursue expansion.