Infantino opens door to 64-team World Cup despite opposition from Uefa and Concacaf

Ten years after Gianni Infantino was elected Fifa president on a promise to expand the World Cup, he appears to have thrown the door wide open to a 64-team tournament. "If you don't give smaller countries a chance to participate, they'll lack the incentive to keep improving," Infantino said, brushing aside the fact that Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan all qualified under the current system. The 2030 World Cup – marking 100 years since the first tournament in Uruguay – will primarily be hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, with the opening three matches played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay as centenary hosts. And Conmebol, the South American confederation, wants more games. In April 2025, it requested a one-off tournament of 64 teams so it could take on the full programme of the additional four groups. Its president, Alejandro Dominguez, said it would ensure "nobody on the planet is left out of the party". But there has been little support from elsewhere. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin dismissed it as a "bad idea" for both the tournament and qualifying process. Victor Montagliani, president of Concacaf, said last year it would damage "the broader football ecosystem". Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation, agreed that further expansion could bring "chaos". None of that means it will not happen – the decision rests with the 37 members of the Fifa Council. A 64-team format would see the top two teams in 16 groups go through to the knockout stage, eliminating the need to send through third-placed teams. Infantino is championing the idea after the heroics of Cape Verde – the only debutants to get out of their group at the 2026 World Cup, drawing with Spain and Uruguay to finish second.