FIFA is reportedly considering the idea of a one-off, 64-team World Cup in 2030 to commemorate the centenary of the tournament, which would mark the second consecutive expansion of the tournament.
The idea was introduced towards the end of a recent FIFA meeting by Ignacio Alonso, a delegate from Uruguay who read a prepared speech in English, per The New York Times. While others in attendance at the virtual meeting were reportedly shocked by the proposal, FIFA president Gianni Infantino took an interest and said the idea should be studied in more detail.
Alonso’s proposal is expected to be met with resistance, much as FIFA’s previous pitch of holding the World Cup every two years rather than its current timeline of every four years. A committee was formed to explore that idea but after a year, their work quietly came to a close.
A 64-team World Cup – especially one on somewhat short notice – is expected to face logistical battles, especially during a tournament that will already be unconventional from that standpoint. FIFA has awarded the hosting rights to the 2030 edition to six countries on three continents – Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. There are also questions surrounding the quality of a 64-team competition, since it would include more than a quarter of FIFA’s member nations and could deem certain World Cup qualification competitions mostly meaningless.
Infantino’s expansion plans
The men’s World Cup was a 32-team competition from 1998 until the most recent iteration in 2022. Infantino was not the first person to suggest expanding the World Cup to 48 teams, but he turned the idea into a reality even if it was an unpopular idea from both a logistical and competition standpoint.
The 2026 World Cup, cohosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, will be the first to host 48 teams. The competition will last 39 days, nine days longer than a 32-team tournament, and will also see 104 games played, up from 64.
Several other competitions have expanded under Infantino’s leadership. The Women’s World Cup went from a 16-team competition in 2011 to hosting 24 teams in 2015 and 2019 before expanding to 32 in 2023. Infantino has also reenvisioned the men’s Club World Cup from an annual eight-team competition to a quadrennial tournament with 32 teams. Some expansions have been more popular than others – while the changes to the Women’s World Cup have been seen as a necessary step to align with the rapid growth of women’s soccer, the Club World Cup is being viewed as a burden to players who are already dealing with the consequences of fixture congestion.
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