Fifa explores expanding 2030 World Cup from 48 to 64 teams
The 2026 tournament was the first since 1998 to move away from the 32-team format, expanding to 48 nations and 104 matches over more than five weeks.
The first 48-team World Cup has barely finished, but Gianni Infantino has already acknowledged the possibility that football's biggest tournament could one day grow even larger.
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Speaking during the tournament, the FIFA president said a 64-team World Cup was among the ideas that could be examined once the finals were over, reopening debate over how large the game’s showpiece event can realistically become.
A bigger tournament would require more stadiums, more hotels, more transport and, most likely, more time.
But the financial implications could prove even more significant. By making qualification easier for many of the game’s biggest nations, a 64-team tournament could reduce the commercial value of qualifying competitions while increasing the importance of FIFA’s own flagship event.
According to CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez, 64 teams will compete in the next World Cup.
Dominguez posted on X: "The next one is played at home! In 2030, the World Cup comes to Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay, a great opportunity for soccer, to celebrate the Centenary of the World Cup with a competition featuring 64 teams."
If broadcasters place less value on qualifying campaigns, football's six regional confederations could become increasingly dependent on FIFA’s own distributions, potentially shifting more financial influence — and power — towards the global governing body.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for the World Cup itself, and it’s not a good idea for our qualifiers either. So I’m not supporting that idea,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said last year. The European governing body’s position has not changed since then.
Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa has also voiced opposition, questioning last year where further expansion might end.
FIFA did not reply to requests for comment.
"I think it is important that when you want to organise a World Cup, you do it for the whole world — not just Europe and South America," Infantino said when discussing the idea of an expanded tournament.
“If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”
The 2026 tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States was the first since 1998 to move away from the 32-team format, expanding to 48 nations and 104 matches over more than five weeks.
If the competition retained the same basic structure, with four-team groups followed by a 32-team knockout stage, a 64-team World Cup would comprise 128 matches — 24 more than in 2026 and double the total staged under the old 32-team format.
Unless FIFA compressed the schedule or staged more games simultaneously, that could add roughly another week to a tournament already lasting more than five weeks.
Plans are in place for Spain, Portugal and Morocco to stage most of the 2030 finals, with Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay each hosting a single opening-round match to mark the tournament’s centenary.
Accommodating 64 teams across six host nations presents a formidable organisational challenge. Doing so in a single country could prove even more demanding.
Saudi Arabia, due to host the tournament alone in 2034, already faces significant scheduling questions. Ramadan is expected to begin in mid-November that year, making the November-December window used for the 2022 World Cup in neighbouring Qatar difficult to replicate and potentially forcing another unprecedented reshaping of the global football calendar.
A 64-team tournament would magnify those challenges, requiring more stadiums, training facilities, hotels, transport capacity and volunteers while placing additional pressure on infrastructure in a country still developing its tourism industry.
The Saudis have proposed 15 venues for the existing 48-team format, with eight stadiums in Riyadh, four in Jeddah and others in Khobar, Neom, and Abha. Construction and renovation work is already under way ahead of the 2027 Asian Cup.