There Is Still A 2030 World Cup Kans Will Be Expanded With 64 Teams

The 2030 World Cup is planned to feature 64 teams (doc. FIFA).

JAKARTA - FIFA President Gianni Infantino met President Conmebol, Alejandro Dominguez, and leaders of three South American football federations to discuss expanding the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, local time, in New York.

The expansion proposal was first proposed by Conmebol in March 2025 by a delegation from Uruguay at an online meeting of the FIFA Council.

However, on Tuesday, Dominguez met with Infantino and the President of the Argentine Federation (AFA), the President of Paraguay Santiago Pena, and the President of Uruguay Yamandu Orsi to discuss the proposal further.

This marks the first time Conmebol's leaders have conveyed the concept directly to Infantino.

"We believe in the historic 2030 World Cup!" Thank you, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, for his remarks and travel to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of this world's biggest football tournament."

"We want to call for great unity, creativity and belief. Because when football is enjoyed by everyone, the celebration is truly global," Dominguez said in a social media post after the meeting.

For the first time since the 1998 edition, the World Cup will be expanded from a 32 team format to 48 teams in the 2026 edition.

The 2030 World Cup has been designated the most extensive edition with six host countries spread across three continents.

Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930 and is scheduled to host one match. Paraguay, Argentina, Spain, Portugal and Morocco also co-hosted.

"I have the honor of being part of the FIFA summit, organized by Gianni Infantino, with the aim of starting the 2030 World Cup."

"It is a pleasure to represent our country at this important meeting. We are family and have done our part to ask for this meeting so that our dream can be realized," said AFA President Claudio Chiqui Tapia, in a post on social media.

The expansion to 64 teams will likely guarantee that the 10 Conmebol member countries will get a place in a bigger tournament.

Venezuela is the only country that has never qualified for the World Cup.

Argentine President Javier Milei was not present at the meeting, but Paraguayan President Santiago Pena and Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi participated in a meeting at the FIFA Office in Trump Tower.

FIFA Secretary General, Mattias Grafstrom, was also present.

"As we approach that date, we have to reiterate that this is not just an ordinary event, not just an ordinary World Cup."

"We believe this is an opportunity once in a century to hold group stage matches in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay," said Dominguez.

If FIFA approves this step, the tournament will take place with 128 matches, double the format of 64 matches played from 1998 to 2022.

Even so, not all confederations agree. Earlier this year, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin called the World Cup a bad idea.

Critics of the 64-team proposal argue that it will weaken the quality of matches and lower the value of qualifying programs across much of the continent.