Tue, July 14, 2026
FIFA president to possibly expand 2030 World Cup to 64 teams
FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, will possibly expand this year’s 48-team World Cup tournament to 64 teams by 2030, which will be a centenary tournament. Prior to this year’s World Cup, there were 32 teams, so 2026 is the first year to consist of 104 matches. Infantino considers the expansion to be a “huge success.”
In relation to the 2030 expansion, Infantino said: “That’s definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup…When organising a World Cup, it’s important to organise it for the whole world – not just Europe and South America – but effectively the entire world…
Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup. You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high – and it’s getting higher and higher, all over the world. If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”
Regarding this year’s tournament, Infantino voiced: “Every team played at a high level. Teams from every continent scored goals and earned at least one point. Nine out of 10 African teams reached the knockout stage. At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa. That just goes to show how important it is to include all teams – to give them this opportunity to participate.”
The first 3 matches of the 2030 tournament are set to be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, and the rest of the games will be played in Morocco, Portugal and Spain. If the tournament does expand, the South American host nations could host multiple matches instead of one each. It was South American governing body, CONMEBOL, which put the proposal to expand to 64 teams forward in 2025.
However, others, such as Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, stated the expansion would bring “chaos,” with UEFA president, Aleksander Čeferin, agreeing it is a “bad idea”, especially for the qualifying process.
President of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), Victor Montagliani, stated the expansion will damage “the broader football ecosystem.” This is significant as the AFC and CONCACAF would likely benefit most from an expanded World Cup.
Andrew Giuliani, Executive Director of the White House’s World Cup task force, however, suggested that America would be able to “handle” the expansion and would possibly bid for the 2038 World Cup. A larger World Cup would also result in more revenue for member associations, though most of the tournament’s commercial revenue goes directly to FIFA.
Will Castle, from The Independent, voiced: “You can’t write anything out with FIFA if there’s commercial or financial benefit attached to it, but amid the torrent of backlash he [Infantino] is receiving in regards to the suspending of USA striker Folarin Balogan’s red-card ban - a development which came after US president Donald Trump intervened - his priority will be regaining a semblance of stability.”
