{"id":251618,"date":"2025-09-24T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251618\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:43:09","slug":"fifa-not-planning-64-team-mens-world-cup-despite-infantinos-trump-tower-summit-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251618\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa not planning 64-team men\u2019s World Cup despite Infantino\u2019s Trump Tower summit | World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifa is not planning to expand the men\u2019s World Cup to 64 teams for the centenary edition of the tournament in 2030, despite its president, Gianni Infantino<\/a>, meeting a delegation of South America leaders to discuss the idea in New York.<\/p>\n

Infantino met the Uruguay and Paraguay heads of state, the president of South American confederation, Conmebol, as well the presidents of the Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay federations at Fifa\u2019s offices in Trump Tower on Tuesday for the first formal discussions about a proposal that was raised informally by the Uruguayan Football Association at a Fifa<\/a> Council meeting last March.<\/p>\n

Fifa\u2019s official position is that it will discuss World Cup<\/a> expansion with all its stakeholders and that it is duty-bound to consider proposals raised at council. But behind the scenes there is scepticism about whether expanding the tournament to 64 teams is a viable proposition. Next year\u2019s World Cup will be the first to contain 48 teams, while the governing body has broken with convention for 2030 by staging the tournament in six countries on three continents. Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina will host the first three matches in tribute to the competition\u2019s South American origins in 1930, before the bulk of the tournament moves to Morocco, Spain and Portugal.<\/p>\n

Any decision to expand the World Cup would be taken by Fifa Council, which meets in Zurich next month, but that is not on the agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cGianni would not get that vote through Council even if he wanted to,\u201d a Fifa source said. \u201cThe overwhelming feeling around the table \u2013 and not just in Europe \u2013 is that 64 teams would damage the World Cup. There\u2019d be too many uncompetitive matches and it would risk damaging the business model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conmebol would be the major beneficiaries of another expansion and sources with knowledge of Tuesday\u2019s meeting disclosed that Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina claimed to have the capability to host all of the group stage.<\/p>\n

Expansion to 64 teams would mean more than 30% of Fifa\u2019s 211 member associations would take part, as well as putting all 10 Conmebol in the frame to qualify, up from six direct qualifiers next year, plus the possibility of an extra place via an inter-confederation playoff.<\/p>\n

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The 64-team idea was first presented at Fifa Council last April, but prompted an immediate backlash. The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, described it as a \u201cbad idea\u201d that would reduce the quality of the tournament and undermine the qualifying competition. The Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, said: \u201cThey [Fifa] can study all they want, but it just doesn\u2019t feel right.\u201d Significantly, both men are Fifa vice-presidents.<\/p>\n

Fifa is also facing calls from leading European clubs to expand the Club World Cup<\/a> from 32 teams in 2029 due to the huge prize and appearance money on offer. Chelsea collected \u00a385m for winning it<\/a> in July. Staging the competition every two years is also being considered.<\/p>\n

A 64-team World Cup would feature 128 matches, double the number played at the most recent tournament in Qatar three years ago and 24 more than next year. The World Cup has grown significantly in recent decades, increasing from 16 to 24 teams in 1982, growing again to 32 in 1998 before becoming a 48-team competition next summer.<\/p>\n

Any decision to expand the World Cup would be taken by Fifa\u2019s Council, which meets in Zurich next month, although the issue is not thought to be on the agenda.<\/p>\n

Fifa declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifa is not planning to expand the men\u2019s World Cup to 64 teams for the centenary edition of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":251619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-251618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115260516324986483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}