Shafaq News- Zurich

FIFA will consider expanding the men’s World Cup to 64 teams after the 2026 tournament, President Gianni Infantino stated, reviving a proposal that would further enlarge a competition already facing scrutiny over its new 48-team format.

Speaking to Switzerland’s Blue Sport, Infantino argued that every country should be able to dream of reaching the World Cup and that the tournament must represent regions beyond Europe and South America.

His remarks do not amount to approval, however, because any expansion would require a formal decision by FIFA’s governing bodies, which have already reviewed a South American proposal for a one-off 64-team tournament in 2030.

Uruguay introduced the idea in 2025 to mark the centenary of the first World Cup, held in Montevideo in 1930. CONMEBOL later promoted it during meetings involving Infantino and football and political leaders from Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. The 2030 World Cup is scheduled to be staged mainly in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, with centenary matches in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Expanding to 64 teams would continue the tournament’s steady growth. The inaugural edition featured 13 countries, before the field operated mainly with 16 teams, rose to 24 in 1982, expanded to 32 in 1998, and reached 48 in 2026.

The current World Cup placed 48 teams in 12 groups of four. The top two in each group advanced alongside the eight best third-placed teams, creating a new round of 32. That change increased the schedule from 64 matches in 2022 to 104 across five weeks in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and a finalist must now play eight matches instead of seven.

The larger field widened qualification access, but the third-place system complicated the group stage. Teams finishing third were ranked across separate groups using points, goal difference, goals scored, disciplinary records, and other criteria, leaving some dependent on results elsewhere after completing their own fixtures. Researchers studying the bracket identified hundreds of possible round-of-32 combinations and warned that the structure reduced scheduling certainty, created uneven knockout paths, and left group winners unable to identify their next opponents in advance.

A 64-team World Cup could remove that problem. The most likely structure would feature 16 groups of four, with the top two from each section advancing to a 32-team knockout phase, simplifying qualification, but increasing the tournament to 128 matches, twice the number played at Qatar 2022 and 24 more than in 2026.

The additional fixtures would deepen concerns over an already congested football calendar. Player unions across Europe, Asia, and the two Americas have repeatedly warned that heavier workloads, limited recovery, long-distance travel, and extreme heat increase injury and health risks.

Meanwhile, the expanded field challenged predictions of widespread mismatches. Several lower-ranked teams competed strongly, while debutants and smaller nations progressed beyond the group stage. For example, Cape Verde became the smallest country to reach the knockout rounds, while nine of Africa’s 10 representatives advanced, supporting FIFA’s argument that additional World Cup places can accelerate development outside traditional football powers.

Infantino has previously linked broader participation to greater investment in infrastructure, academies, and national-team programmes, particularly in Africa and Asia, and a larger World Cup would also create more television markets, sponsorship opportunities, ticket sales, and national audiences.

Either way, FIFA has not published a proposed schedule, qualification allocation, or hosting model for a 64-team World Cup. The governing body is expected to assess the sporting, financial, and logistical results of the 2026 tournament before deciding whether to advance the proposal.