Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said it is "now or never" for FIFA to review the structure of the international calendar.
Wenger is concerned about the "friction" between clubs and countries due to the exertions placed on players throughout a season.
Last month, Wenger suggested that Aaron Ramsey's exertions for Wales may have contributed to a hamstring injury that ruled the midfielder out.
FIFA is set to elect a new president on Feb. 26 as a replacement for Sepp Blatter, who will step down following the corruption scandal that has hit the governing body.
"It is now or never -- you would like to put it all on the table," Wenger told Arsenal Player.
"You see the European Championship has gone from 16 to 24 teams. I bet you [because of] the way the system was organised, to be elected as new president of FIFA, the programme would be to move the World Cup from 32 to 40 teams.
"Why? Because Africa today has five countries in the World Cup and Europe has 13 -- that cannot work for much longer.
"You cannot take countries away from Europe and if you want to be elected as FIFA president, you need the votes from the African countries, so you want to give more to Africa. So the next World Cups will be 40 teams.
"We face a situation where it's impossible for the players to get through a season and have rest. This kind of friction that it creates between the clubs, national teams and international competitions can create a split.
"One day the clubs could move away and say, 'Enough is enough, we pay a huge amount of money for our best players so we'll get them together ourselves and organise our own competitions.'
"It's important that all of that gets on the table while we have the opportunity."