FIFA has announced that it will review a proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams. The 2030 edition of the tournament will mark the centenary of football’s marquee event and is set to be hosted in Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, with Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay also hosting three games.
The World Cup was previously expanded from 32 to 48 teams for the 2026 edition, which will be held in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
A FIFA spokesperson told Reuters that the proposal for a 64-team tournament was raised spontaneously during the FIFA Council meeting on March 5, 2025.
“A proposal to analyze a 64-team FIFA World Cup to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup in 2030 was spontaneously raised by a FIFA Council member in the ‘miscellaneous’ agenda item near the end of the FIFA Council meeting held on March 5, 2025,” the spokesperson said.
“The idea was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its Council members.”
It is believed that the proposal was made by Ignacio Alonso, a delegate from Uruguay.
DAILY MENTOR reports that the potential expansion reflects FIFA’s ongoing efforts to grow the global appeal of the World Cup. However, the proposal will undergo thorough analysis to assess its feasibility and impact on the tournament’s format and logistics.
The 2030 World Cup is already set to be a historic event, with six countries across three continents hosting matches to celebrate 100 years of the competition. The proposed expansion could further enhance its significance, though it remains to be seen whether the idea will gain widespread support.