An official proposal to expand the men’s 2030 World Cup to 64 teams has been put forward by South American governing body Conmebol.
The tournament will be hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, after the opening matches are held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first with 48 teams but Conmebol wants to expand further for 2030 to mark the competition’s 100-year anniversary.
“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,” said Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez 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 was first “spontaneously raised” at a FIFA Council meeting in March by Uruguayan Football Federation president Ignacio Alonso.
In a statement on Friday, FIFA said it had a “duty to analyse any proposal from one of its Council members”.
Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, participated in Thursday’s Conmebol Congress and highlighted the “exceptional milestone” the 2030 tournament would represent.
The decision to expand the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams was taken in 2017 following a unanimous vote at a FIFA congress.
FIFA’s 75th congress will be held in Paraguay on 15 May, when Conmebol’s proposal could be discussed.
Should the proposal eventually be accepted, the 2030 edition would include 128 matches – up from the 64-game format played between 1998 and 2022.
Critics of the expansion say it devalues the qualification process, while Environmental group Fossil Free Football said the decision to host the tournament across three continents was a “climate nightmare”.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described the proposal as a “bad idea” earlier this month.
“This proposal was maybe even more surprising for me than you. I think it is a bad idea,” Ceferin said at a news conference.
The 2030 World Cup is being held across three continents for the first time.
Spain, Portugal and Morocco were named tournament hosts in 2024, with matches to be held in Argentina and Paraguay to mark the 100-year anniversary of the first World Cup tournament.
Uruguay – the inaugural winners of the competition in 1930 – have since been announced as co-hosts, with the country to host one game.
