A high ranking football official appeared to confirm the next World Cup will feature 64 teams. Alejandro Dominguez, the president of CONMEBOL – South America’s answer to UEFA – confidently said the 2030 tournament will be expended by another 16 teams.
Nevertheless, it has not stopped Dominguez from essentially confirming 64 nations will compete in 2030. Shortly after the final, Dominguez posted on X: “The next one is played at home! In 2030, the World Cup comes to Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay, a great opportunity for soccer, to celebrate the Centenary of the World Cup with a competition featuring 64 teams.”
The previous day, he shared a comparable message ahead of the World Cup final. Nevertheless, his language was considerably less definitive than his latest statement. He stated: “We are living through a historic World Cup, the first with 48 teams, a true success.
“Congratulations dear Gianni Infantino and to all the friends at FIFA for such a great organisation, and congratulations Spain for being the new world champion. In 2030, we’ll see you at home with the dream of playing it with 64 teams to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup!”.
His language in the initial post, describing the 64-team format as a “dream” at this stage, indicates it remains under consideration at present. This echoes Infantino’s remarks when initially questioned about the 64-team tournament.
When asked about the proposal, Infantino told Blue Sport: “These are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup. When organising a World Cup, it’s important to organise 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 64-team proposal has faced opposition, with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin branding it a “bad idea” while Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation, warned it would create “chaos” in international football.