Spain’s 1-0 victory over Argentina in the 2026 World Cup final, settled by Ferran Torres’s extra-time strike at the MetLife Stadium, brought the first 48-team tournament to a close. Within hours, attention had already pivoted to the next edition, after Alejandro Domínguez, president of the South American confederation CONMEBOL, used social media to declare that the 2030 centenary World Cup should be contested by 64 nations. “The next one is played at home!” he wrote, naming Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay as hosts of the opening matches and calling the expansion “a great opportunity for football.”

Domínguez’s intervention is the latest salvo in a campaign to enlarge the tournament beyond the 48 sides that competed across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 2030 finals are already unique: six countries across three continents will stage matches, with Spain, Portugal and Morocco serving as the primary hosts, while Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay each host a single opening fixture to mark the hundredth anniversary of the first World Cup in Montevideo. A move to 64 teams would transform that arrangement, allowing the three South American nations to host entire groups rather than lone ceremonial games, and would create a 16-group first round feeding into a round of 32.

The proposal has exposed familiar fault lines in global football governance. Viewed from South America, the expansion is framed as a historic right for the continent that birthed the tournament, and a means to secure greater representation. In Europe, however, senior officials at UEFA have publicly labelled the idea ill-conceived, warning that it would dilute competitive quality and further strain player workloads. The Confederation of African Football and the Asian Football Confederation, whose members stand to gain additional slots, have yet to take a unified public position, though their numerical weight in FIFA’s congress makes their eventual stance decisive.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said all format options will be examined by the relevant committees after the 2026 tournament, but has given no timeline for a decision. The governing body’s internal analysis will have to weigh the commercial upside of more matches and broader global participation against logistical complexity and the risk of mismatches. The 2026 edition, while producing shocks such as Cape Verde’s run, also saw several debutants fail to win a match, a reminder that expansion does not automatically raise standards.

For now, the 2030 tournament remains officially a 48-team event, with the final scheduled for 21 July at a venue yet to be confirmed from among Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, Barcelona’s Camp Nou and the Grand Stade Hassan II in Casablanca. The six host nations are already guaranteed automatic qualification, though South American officials have floated the idea that Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay might still contest qualifiers to maintain competitive rhythm, possibly as part of a new intercontinental Nations League. The debate over 64 teams will now shift to the corridors of FIFA, where the balance of power between confederations will determine whether the centenary World Cup becomes the largest in history.