The 2026 World Cup hasn't even finished and FIFA is already thinking bigger. President Gianni Infantino has confirmed the governing body will formally examine expanding the tournament to 64 teams — potentially as soon as 2030. That's not a distant pipe dream. It's an active discussion.
If it happens, this wouldn't just be another incremental tweak. The World Cup went from 16 teams to 24 in 1982, then 32 in 1998, and 48 in 2026. A jump to 64 would be the sharpest single expansion in the tournament's history.
How the format would work
The most logical structure is straightforward: 16 groups of four teams, with the top two from each advancing. That produces a 32-team knockout bracket — the same size as the entire tournament from 1998 to 2022 — then runs through a Round of 32, Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final.
Total matches: 128. Compare that to the 64-game format used in the 32-team era, or the 104 matches scheduled for 2026. It's a significant jump in volume, which means more TV inventory, more commercial deals, and more strain on players already working through a congested calendar.
Three-team groups won't be on the table. FIFA already abandoned that idea for 2026 after legitimate concerns about collusion — teams knowing exactly what result they need in the final group game creates the conditions for a fix. Four-team groups restore competitive integrity, even if they inflate the overall match count.
Qualification becomes almost meaningless for some confederations
This is the part that should generate the most debate. With 64 spots available, nearly a third of FIFA's 210+ member nations would qualify. CONMEBOL already sends six teams to the 48-team tournament. In a 64-team world, the number rises further — meaning qualification campaigns in South America could become little more than seeding exercises for most countries.
Supporters frame this as democratisation. More nations on the global stage means more investment in development, more exposure, more growth. It's a coherent argument, especially for regions that have historically been underrepresented.
Critics — particularly from European football's power structures — push back on two fronts: the prestige of qualifying erodes when almost everyone makes it, and the group stage loses its edge when the gap in quality between the best and worst teams is measured in decades of infrastructure rather than a few league positions.
Both sides have a point. And neither is going away.
- 128 total matches — up from 104 in 2026 and 64 in the 32-team era
- 16 groups of four, top two advance — mirrors the pre-2026 structure at double the scale
- 2030 already spans South America, Europe, and Africa — adding 16 more teams compounds every logistical problem
- Player welfare concerns are real: the club calendar is already at breaking point
For anyone pricing outright World Cup markets or qualification odds, a 64-team tournament fundamentally changes the calculus. Smaller nations that currently sit on the outside looking in become genuine participants, and the path to the latter stages gets longer and more unpredictable for everyone.
FIFA will formally revisit the proposal after 2026 concludes. The 2030 centenary tournament — already spanning three continents — is the target. Whether 64 teams makes it there or gets pushed to 2034, the direction of travel is clear. Infantino wants it bigger. The question is how much resistance he faces, and from whom.
