Alejandro Dominguez, president of South America’s football governing body CONMEBOL, has officially proposed that the 2030 FIFA World Cup expand to include 64 national teams instead of the currently approved 48.
The proposal was presented on Thursday at CONMEBOL’s 80th Ordinary Congress and aims to make the tournament’s 100th anniversary a special edition.
FIFA, which governs international soccer, was already made aware of the suggestion when a Uruguayan delegate raised it in a virtual FIFA Council meeting in March.
“We are convinced that the centennial celebration will be unique because 100 years are celebrated only once,” Dominguez said in the Congress.
“That is why we are proposing, for the first time, to hold this anniversary with 64 teams, on three continents simultaneously.
“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.”
The 2030 edition of the World Cup is set to be the most geographically expansive ever, with six host nations across three continents.
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Uruguay, who hosted the inaugural tournament in 1930, is expected to hold one match as part of the centennial tribute. The other co-hosts include Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.
By expanding the tournament, all 10 CONMEBOL member nations – including Venezuela, which has yet to qualify for a World Cup – would likely be assured spots in the competition.
If implemented, the revised format would double the number of matches from the 64-game model that was used from 1998 to 2022, bringing the total to 128 games.
Despite the excitement surrounding the proposal from CONMEBOL, not everyone supports the idea. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has previously expressed his concerns, calling the concept of a 64-team World Cup “a bad idea.”
Skeptics argue that such an expansion could dilute the level of play and undermine the importance of the qualification process, especially in traditionally competitive regions.
