FIFA President Gianni Infantino has revealed that world football’s governing body will consider expanding the FIFA World Cup from 48 to 64 teams before the 2030 edition.
The proposal comes after the successful introduction of the expanded 48-team format at the 2026 World Cup, which increased the number of participating nations by 16 compared to previous tournaments.
Speaking in an interview, Infantino said the possibility of further expansion would be discussed by FIFA’s relevant committees once the current tournament concludes.
“That’s definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” Infantino said.
“When organising a World Cup, it’s important to organise it for the whole world, not just Europe and South America, but effectively the entire world.
“Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup.”
The FIFA president argued that expanding the competition would provide more opportunities for emerging football nations while raising the overall standard of the global game.
“You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high and it’s getting higher and higher all over the world,” he said.
“If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”
The World Cup featured 32 teams from France 1998 through to Qatar 2022 before expanding to 48 nations for the 2026 tournament, which has produced a record 104 matches.
Infantino described the new format as a “huge success”, citing the competitiveness of teams from every continent.
“Every team played at a high level. Teams from every continent scored goals and earned at least one point,” he said.
“Nine out of 10 African teams reached the knockout stage. At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa. That just goes to show how important it is to include more teams and give them this opportunity to participate.”
The 2030 FIFA World Cup will be staged across six countries on three continents to mark the competition’s centenary.
Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will each host one opening match before the tournament moves to its principal hosts—Morocco, Portugal and Spain—for the remainder of the competition.
Should FIFA approve a 64-team format, the expanded tournament could allow the South American co-hosts to stage entire group-phase matches rather than a single fixture each, while significantly increasing the number of participating nations in what would become the largest World Cup in history.
Any proposal to expand the tournament would require approval from FIFA’s decision-making bodies before it could be implemented for the 2030 finals.
