Just after the 2026 World Cup quarter-finals wrapped up, with Argentina, France, Spain, and England making it to the semis, FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has dropped a bombshell. He’s seriously considering expanding the 2030 tournament to include 64 teams.
NEW YORK: Get ready for a football shake-up. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has just dropped a major hint that the World Cup could be getting even bigger. He called the first-ever 48-team tournament in the USA, Canada, and Mexico a huge success. Now, he says FIFA is seriously thinking about increasing the number of teams to 64 for the 100th-anniversary edition in 2030.
Infantino made these comments right after the 2026 World Cup quarter-finals finished, which saw Argentina, France, Spain, and England book their spots in the semi-finals. In an interview with the Swiss media outlet ‘Bluewin’, Infantino made it clear that the World Cup isn’t just for a handful of countries. He described the current 48-team format as a “100 percent success.”
He said, “The World Cup is for the entire world, not just for Europe and South America. It’s every country’s dream to play in the World Cup. If we don’t give smaller nations a chance, they lose the motivation to improve their football standards. After this World Cup, the relevant FIFA committees will discuss the move to a 64-team format in detail.”
A 64-team structure would actually simplify things. It would get rid of the complicated group stage calculations we have now (like finding the best third-placed teams). The new format would have 16 groups of four teams each. The top two from each group would directly qualify for the knockout stage (Round of 32). This would increase the total number of matches in the tournament from 104 to 128.
While more teams mean more countries get a chance to play on the global stage, the idea is already facing some serious opposition. European football’s governing body, UEFA, along with major domestic leagues and players’ unions, are strongly against this expansion. Their main worry is that players are already under immense physical and mental pressure due to a packed match schedule.
They argue that adding more games could be damaging to players’ careers. The 2030 World Cup is already set to be historic. For the first time ever, it will be held across three continents and six countries (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay).
Only the first three matches of the World Cup will be held in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. If FIFA gives the green signal to this 64-team proposal, which was put forward by the South American Football Confederation, the 2030 tournament will become the biggest sporting spectacle in football history.