CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez has proposed expanding the 2030 FIFA World Cup to 64 teams to mark the tournament’s centenary. He announced the plan shortly after the 2026 World Cup concluded, saying, "The next one is at home! In 2030, the World Cup is coming to Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. It will be a great opportunity for football, to celebrate the World Cup's centenary with a 64-team tournament" [1].
The 2030 World Cup will be co-hosted by six countries: Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. The South American trio will stage the opening centenary matches while the European and African hosts will hold the remainder of the tournament [1, 2]. These six hosts are expected to qualify automatically, a practice consistent with recent multi-nation tournaments [3, 4].
The 2026 World Cup expanded the field to 48 teams from the traditional 32. It took place across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with Spain winning the title [1, 2]. The 48-team format featured 104 matches [5]. A 64-team tournament would increase matches to 128, nearly doubling the number under the 32-team format, and likely run up to six weeks, raising concerns about player workloads and scheduling logistics with club seasons [3, 6].
A possible 64-team format might divide teams into 16 groups of 4, with the top two from each group advancing to a 32-team knockout round [7, 8, 3].
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has confirmed the organization will discuss the possibility of expanding to 64 teams after the 2026 tournament. He emphasized the importance of inclusivity, stating, "Every nation should be able to dream of taking part in the World Cup," and warned, "If we do not give smaller nations the opportunity to participate, they will lose the motivation to keep progressing" [6, 4].
However, FIFA has not yet officially confirmed the 64-team expansion for 2030 [1, 2, 7]. The proposal by CONMEBOL and support from FIFA leadership set the stage for official decisions to be made in the coming years.
The next key moment will be FIFA’s formal discussions and decisions on the tournament format, expected following the 2026 World Cup cycle, as signaled by President Infantino [3, 6].
