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FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confirmed that football’s world governing body will examine a proposal to expand the World Cup to 64 teams for the 2030 edition.

According to _The Athletic_, the idea was raised during a FIFA Council meeting as officials look ahead to the centenary tournament. The 2030 World Cup will already be the largest in history, with 48 teams set to compete across six nations and three continents.

The unique format will see Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay each host one match to mark 100 years since the first World Cup in Uruguay. The remainder of the tournament will then be staged in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.

Infantino said FIFA will now “analyze” the 64-team proposal, though no decision has been made. Expanding to 64 nations would mean 16 additional countries qualify, significantly widening access to the tournament but also raising concerns over fixture congestion, quality, and logistics.

Critics argue a 64-team World Cup could dilute competitiveness and place further strain on players already facing a packed calendar. Supporters, however, believe it offers more nations the chance to participate in a landmark edition.

Source: The Athletic

Hopefully, we'll qualify . Another Osimhen go show face then

With the current 48 teams, we already saw how diluted the tournament could get. The previous formats were far more competitive and fun to watch! Now, we see teams emerging from groups with only 3 points. Who knows what'll be next with 64 teams! Teams will soon start progressing out of their groups with only 1 point ? It's obvious FIFA is more concerned about the financial benefits, than competitiveness and quality of play as more games will certainly translate to more ticket sales, more hydration breaks to sell more water, more advertisements, etc. They should as well be thinking about 128 teams after the 64 team tournament.

16 groups of 4 teams each.
Top 2 in each group to qualify for R/32

At least that will do away with the cumbersome Best 3rd Place Finishers.

This in my opinion, is better. Everyone wants to see their country competing at the highest level. World Cup gives people alot of joy. I'd say, the more the merrier!

This is going to be too cumbersome as regards the world cup fixtures.

pato405:
With the current 48 teams, we already saw how diluted the tournament could get. The previous formats were far more competitive and fun to watch! Now, we see teams emerging from groups with only 3 points. Who knows what'll be next with 64 teams! Teams will soon start progressing out of their groups with only 1 point ? It's obvious FIFA is more concerned about the financial benefits, than competitiveness and quality of play as more games will certainly translate to more ticket sales, more hydration breaks to sell more water, more advertisements, etc. They should as well be thinking about 128 teams after the 64 team tournament.

64 is better than 48.
2 teams will qualify from each group. No third placed team qualifies

World Cup is not interesting anymore

I see greed in all this. Just look at the current World Cup. The ticket prices are ridiculously high because they've adopted the American ticketing model, where prices are often inflated. If they had tried this nonsense in some other countries, they would have ended up with plenty of empty seats.