Fifa to assess controversial 64-team World Cup expansion after 2026

Fifa will examine a 64-team men’s World Cup after the 2026 tournament, Gianni Infantino said, reviving a proposal that would add another 16 sides and push the competition from 48 teams to 64. The Fifa president said the game needed to be “for the whole world” and that moving from 48 to 64 teams “could make sense.”

The review comes only as the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada prepares to become the first edition played under a 48-team format, up from the long-running 32-team model. Any further expansion would be aimed at the centenary 2030 tournament, turning the tournament’s growth into a running test of how far Fifa can stretch its flagship event without eroding the standard on the pitch.

The proposal has already drawn a sharp response from Europe. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin called the 64-team idea “a bad idea” in April 2025, arguing it would hurt both the World Cup and qualifying competitions. Critics of another expansion have said a larger field could weaken the quality of play and cheapen the path to qualification, especially if more places are handed out before the best teams have had to earn them.

The idea was first raised inside Fifa’s power structure in March 2025, when a delegate from Uruguay brought it up during a FIFA Council meeting chaired by Infantino. CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez then made a formal push on April 10, 2025, when he proposed a 64-team men’s World Cup for 2030 and argued that the centenary edition should be inclusive. Uruguay Football Federation chief Ignacio Alonso has been identified as the delegate who initially surfaced the plan in the council discussion.

The immediate winner from another expansion would be Fifa itself, which would control a larger global showpiece and deepen its reach across more national associations. The costs would be pushed outward: more teams means more travel, more matches to stage, more strain on the calendar and more pressure on qualifying tournaments already stretched by the jump to 48 teams in 2026. The next formal battle over the scale of the World Cup will come after the North American tournament is over, when Fifa’s relevant committees take up the 64-team question.