Europe's top clubs will support UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino in his bid to win the FIFA presidential election this month.
The European Clubs' Association (ECA) -- which represents over 200 clubs including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich -- said on Tuesday that they were giving their backing to Infantino, though the group doesn't have a vote.
"We know Gianni very well. He has been instrumental in the creation of the relationship between UEFA and the ECA," vice-chairman Umberto Gandini said. "We see his candidacy as a nice opportunity for him which hopefully will benefit football worldwide.
"He has the skills to perform very well."
However, the clubs are not happy with Infantino's proposal to expand the World Cup, which is also in the manifesto of some rivals and a recommendation of FIFA's reform commission.
"This is in the hands of FIFA and it will be in the hands of the new FIFA structure after the election," said Gandini.
"We will expect to be at the table to discuss all the possible reforms and we will bring our contribution and our evaluation, which can only be negative today.
He added: "We are not there yet [at the point where changes to the World Cup format would be made] but we are not now in a situation of supporting such an idea.
Infantino and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Sheikh Salman of Bahrain are the leading candidates heading into the Feb. 26 election.
They each have the backing of their own confederations, and Infantino has support from South America's CONMEBOL, while Salman has the backing of the CAF, though at least some African countries are unlikely to vote as a bloc.