The 2030 FIFA Men's World Cup is poised to be a monumental event, as the tournament celebrates its 100th anniversary. At a recent FIFA council meeting, the president of Uruguay's soccer federation, Ignacio Alonso, proposed a one-off expansion to 64 teams, which is twice the size of the 2022 tournament and previous editions. This significant change would likely result in a 128-match affair with 16 groups of four, followed by a 32-team knockout stage.
Currently, the World Cup is set to expand to 48 teams for the first time in 2026. However, expectations are that 48-team fields will be the norm for at least a decade, and possibly two, in keeping with the tournament's historical growth trajectory. The proposed expansion to 64 teams would be a significant change and would likely strain the capabilities of transport networks and local facilities, making it a daunting task for potential future hosts like Saudi Arabia.
The 2030 World Cup will be held across six countries and three continents, beginning with one game each in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, where the first World Cup was held in 1930. The tournament will then shift to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, which under the current format would be tasked with hosting 101 of the 104 games over 39 days. An expanded World Cup would increase the burden on all three countries and would carry all sorts of logistical concerns.
Organizing the first 48-team World Cup in 2026, spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is already proving a colossal challenge for FIFA and North American organizers. A 64-team World Cup would likely be an even greater challenge for potential hosts like Saudi Arabia.
The proposal was made by Alonso, who read from a prepared statement in English at the end of Wednesday's meeting. It stunned some of the 37 members of the council, who had mostly gathered via videoconference. However, FIFA's all-powerful president, Gianni Infantino, called the proposal an interesting one that should be studied. It's not outlandish to assume that Infantino and Alonso had discussed the idea before Alonso brought it to the council.
Infantino has been pushing relentlessly to expand competitions and launch new ones to augment FIFA's revenue, which he can use to fulfill promises of multimillion-dollar handouts to each of FIFA's 211 member associations. He was re-elected by acclamation in 2023 after running unopposed. A FIFA spokesman claimed that the idea was "spontaneously raised" at Wednesday's meeting and that "FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its council members." It's unclear how exactly the proposal will be studied or who would decide on further expansion or when.
Separately, FIFA is already considering expanding the Women's World Cup to 48 teams in 2031, just two cycles after it expanded from 24 to 32 teams. That 2031 tournament will likely be held in the U.S., after FIFA opaquely barred most other potential hosts from bidding with little justification.
