Under-fire FIFA President Gianni Infantino is open to another expansion of the World Cup to 64 countries.
According to the BBC, a proposal for an expanded tournament was put forward last year, and considering the success of the expanded 48-team tournament, FIFA could look at how a 64-team World Cup would work.
Speaking to Blue Sport, a Swiss broadcaster, the Italian revealed that “these are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup”.
He praised the quality that the qualified countries have exhibited so far, stressing the need to give the smaller nations a chance at the global stage.
“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.”
An official proposal to boost the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams was put forward by South American governing body Conmebol in April 2025, but no decision has been reached.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin; Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa; and Victor Montagliani, president of the governing body for football in North and Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), have all objected to the proposal.
