FIFA considers expanding 2030 World Cup to 64 teams

FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that discussions on expanding the World Cup to 64 teams will begin now that the 48-team 2026 tournament has concluded. The talks are partly driven by South American hosts Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay pushing for more matches in the 2030 edition.

Expanding to 64 teams would require 16 groups of four, pushing the group stage from 72 matches to 96. If fixtures are scheduled at the same rate as the 2026 tournament, the group phase alone would take three weeks, creating a six-week competition in total.

Such an expansion would have severe infrastructure implications. While the 48-team tournament required 15 stadiums, a 64-team event would demand 20 venues for 128 matches. This would effectively end the era of single-nation hosts. If England were to host, nearly every Premier League ground would need to be vacated for the summer.

The qualification landscape for European nations would also shift dramatically. Using the current allocation percentages, Europe would receive 21 spots at a 64-team tournament, up from the 16 allocated for 2026. Roughly 30 per cent of all FIFA member nations would reach the finals.

The format change would eliminate the third-placed qualification route, with only the top two teams from each group advancing to a 32-team knockout stage. However, this risks reviving "dead rubber" final group matches between already-qualified or eliminated sides. FIFA would likely have to revert to goal difference over head-to-head records to maintain competitive interest.

A larger tournament would almost certainly produce more goals, continuing a trend seen in 2026 when 308 goals were scored across 104 matches. Data indicates that goal tallies rise as the gap in FIFA rankings between teams widens, a disparity that would only grow with the addition of 16 extra nations.