The final whistle had barely faded on the first 48-team World Cup when the campaign for a 64-nation edition in 2030 began in earnest. Alejandro Domínguez, the president of South American football’s governing body CONMEBOL, declared on social media that the centenary tournament would be “a great opportunity for football to celebrate with 64 teams”, a statement that transformed a long-whispered ambition into an open institutional push. FIFA president Gianni Infantino had already signalled his appetite for further expansion, telling Swiss television that “every country should be able to dream of participating”, and confirming the matter would be studied by FIFA committees after the 2026 tournament.

Under the blueprint being discussed, the 2030 World Cup would swell to 128 matches, up from 104 in 2026, and require an estimated 20 to 22 stadiums across six host nations on three continents. The three South American co-hosts — Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay — currently slated to stage only a single commemorative match each to mark the centenary of the 1930 Montevideo final, would instead be in line to host an entire group phase, dramatically upgrading their role. The bulk of the tournament would remain with the primary hosts Spain, Portugal and Morocco, but the expanded format would force a logistical re-engineering of a competition already stretched across the Atlantic. Qualifying would be overhauled again, with the African, Asian and Concacaf confederations expected to receive the largest allocation increases, while UEFA’s share would rise only modestly, deepening a sense of marginalisation among European federations.

Reaction has cleaved along continental lines. From Asunción, Domínguez framed the expansion as a structural evolution, arguing that “football grows when it opens to the world” and that the jump to 48 teams had already demonstrated the benefits of wider participation. In Africa and Asia, where the 2026 expansion delivered a near-doubling of guaranteed slots, the prospect of further places has been met with quiet enthusiasm, though no confederation has yet issued a formal position. European football, by contrast, has mobilised in opposition. La Liga president Javier Tebas called the idea “nonsensical” and warned it would represent “the ongoing destruction of the football industry”, insisting that national leagues, not the World Cup, sustain the sport. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin has previously labelled a 64-team tournament a “bad idea”, and Swedish commentators have described the logistical demands as a “nightmare”, while noting that the dilution of quality and increased carbon footprint are unavoidable.

The expansion push is inseparable from the politics of FIFA’s leadership. Infantino faces reelection next year, and the promise of more World Cup slots and increased revenue — FIFA’s 2026 turnover is projected to reach $14.4 billion, double the Qatar 2022 figure — is a powerful tool for securing votes from smaller federations. The 2030 hosting arrangement itself, which bundled South American ceremonial matches with a European-African main event, was widely interpreted as a manoeuvre to clear the path for Saudi Arabia’s uncontested bid for 2034, a move that has drawn scrutiny from European parliamentarians and the IOC’s ethics commission. Domínguez, a close Infantino ally, was rewarded with the 2025 FIFA Congress for Paraguay and the 2030 centenary matches, a transactional pattern that critics say has hollowed out the bidding process.

FIFA has yet to make any formal decision, and the proposal must navigate technical reviews and political resistance before it can be put to a vote. The next concrete step will be the deliberations of FIFA’s relevant committees, expected after the 2026 World Cup. For now, the 2030 tournament remains officially a 48-team event, but the battle lines are already drawn: a president seeking to cement his legacy through perpetual expansion, a South American confederation leveraging a historic anniversary for greater influence, and a European establishment warning that the sport’s most prized competition is being stretched beyond recognition.