With the first 48-team World Cup soon coming to a close, FIFA president Gianni Infantino is laying the groundwork for further expansion of the tournament in 2030.
Infantino recently conducted an interview with Swiss broadcaster Blue Sport and was asked about expansion of the World Cup to include 64 teams.
“That’s definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” Infantino said, per Blue Sport translation. “When organizing a World Cup, it’s important to organize 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. You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high, and it’s getting higher and higher, all over the world. If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”
The 2030 World Cup will officially be co-hosted by Portugal, Spain and Morocco. But in honor of the the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930, the tournament will hold three first-round matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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The centennial celebration of the tournament will encompass games played across six countries in three different continents. It sounds for Infantino like an opportune time to promote further expansion of the tournament.
Infantino made no mention in the interview of the increased revenue additional teams and games would provide.
The World Cup just expanded
The current iteration of the World Cup is down to its final four teams following Saturday’s conclusion of the quarterfinal round. The tournament played across North America is the first to include 48 teams and feature 104 games.
The previous seven World Cups starting with host France in 1998 featured 32 teams playing 64 games. Previous iterations involved multiple expansions ranging from 13 to 24 teams from the inaugural in Uruguay through the 1994 rendition in the United States.
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Despite controversies on and off the pitch, this World Cup has largely been a success. It’s featured compelling competition and intense interest that’s translated to packed stands and high TV ratings from the start of Group play through the first three rounds of knockout play.
It’s also come with the additional revenue provided by 40 additional games. It appears as good a time as any for Infantino to plead his case for tournament expansion.
Is further World Cup expansion a good idea?
Continued expansion is not an idea that’s universally embraced. Similar to criticism of NCAA tournament and College Football Playoff expansion in the U.S., critics argue that expansion would devalue the yearslong World Cup qualifying season and erode the quality of the product on the field once the World Cup kicks off.
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UEFA president and FIFA vice president Aleksander Čeferin slammed the idea when it was first proposed by a Uruguayan delegate and the South American governing body, Conmebol in 2025 ahead the 2030 World Cup that will kick off in South America.
“This proposal was maybe even more surprising for me than you,” Čeferin told reporters at a news conference in Belgrade, Serbia, per ESPN. “I think it is a bad idea.
“It is not a good idea for the World Cup itself, and it’s not a good idea for our qualifiers as well.”
Expansion has since met opposition from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the North and Central America and the Caribbean governing body (CONCACAF).
