The idea of expanding the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams is being actively considered by FIFA, but has sparked an immediate backlash from elsewhere. The 2030 edition of the tournament is already an outlier because it will be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with the opening three matches taking place in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
But now South American governing body CONMEBOL has thrown another curveball for the 100-year anniversary edition by proposing another expansion. The 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico will be the first played between 48 teams over 104 matches.
That is big, but not big enough, for Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez, who wants to go a step further. “This will allow all countries to have the opportunity to live the world experience and so nobody on the planet is left out of the party,” Dominguez said at the body’s congress on Thursday. “We are convinced that the centennial celebration will be unique because 100 years are celebrated only once.”
The idea of 64 teams would mean that the 2030 edition would expand to 128 matches – a dramatic increase from the 64-game format played between 1998 and 2022. Gianni Infantino’s period as FIFA president has been defined by expansionism and, having noted the “exceptional milestone” of the 2030 World Cup, he is likely to be keen on the proposal.
In a statement on Friday, FIFA said it had a “duty to analyse any proposal from one of its Council members”. But there has already been a negative reaction from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who described the proposal as a “bad idea” earlier this month when the idea was first floated by Uruguayan Football Federation president Ignacio Alonso in March.
“This proposal was maybe even more surprising for me than you. I think it is a bad idea,” Ceferin said at a news conference. “It is not a good idea for the World Cup itself and it’s not a good idea for our qualifiers as well. It is strange that we did not know anything before this proposal at the FIFA council, I don’t know where it came from.”
For many, staging a World Cup over six countries and three continents was already a bad idea, given the number of air miles involved. But dramatically increasing the number of teams – and therefore games and fans – has tipped it even further into the extreme.
“Adding even more countries to the World Cup is a ridiculous idea,” said Fossil Free Football founder Frank Huisingh. “The 2030 World Cup is already going to be a climate nightmare with 48 teams playing in six host countries across three continents. Adding another 16 teams would lead to a lot of extra polluting flights. Fans don’t want this, players don’t want this and the planet certainly can’t take it.
“It’s time for FIFA to reverse course. To stand with fans and players, not polluters. It’s time to kick out its Saudi oil company sponsor and organise global football in a way that is suitable for the times we live in.”
Freddie Daley from the Cool Down Sport for Climate Action Network added: “The plan to expand the 2030 Men’s World Cup exposes football’s insatiable hunger for growth. More teams mean more fans, more flights, and more planet-warming emissions. The sport is acting like climate change isn’t its problem – when in fact, its very future depends on a habitable planet. Football’s relentless expansion is putting the game, players and fans at risk.”
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