How a 64-team World Cup could transform football’s economics

Published 21 July 2026 · sports

Spain, Portugal and Morocco are the cohosts of the 2030 edition, but we await confirmation of 48 or 64 competitors. The first 48-team World Cup

Spain, Portugal and Morocco are the cohosts of the 2030 edition, but we await confirmation of 48 or 64 competitors. The first 48-team World Cup has barely finished, but Gianni Infantino has already acknowledged the possibility that football’s biggest tournament could one day grow larger still, a move that could fundamentally alter the economics of the sport. Speaking to Swiss television during the tournament, the FIFA president said a 64-team ⁠World Cup was among the ideas that could be examined once the final was over, reopening debate over how large the game’s showpiece event could realistically become. The logistical implications of another expansion are obvious. A bigger tournament would require more stadiums, more hotels, more transport and, most likely, more time. But the financial implications could prove even more significant. By making qualification easier for many of the game’s biggest nations, a 64-team tournament ⁠could reduce the commercial value of qualifying competitions while increasing the importance of FIFA’s own flagship event. If broadcasters place less value on qualifying campaigns, football’s six regional confederations could become increasingly dependent on FIFA’s own distributions, potentially shifting more financial influence – and power – towards the global governing body. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for the World Cup itself, and it’s not a good idea for our qualifiers either.

So I’m not supporting that idea,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said last year. The European governing body’s position has not changed since then. Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa has also voiced opposition, questioning last year where further expansion might end. “I think it is important that when you want to organise a World Cup, you do it for the whole world – not just Europe and South America,” Infantino said when discussing the idea of an expanded tournament. “If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.” The 2026 tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States was the first since 1998 to move away from the 32-team format, expanding to 48 nations and 104 matches over more than five weeks. If the competition retained the same basic structure with four-team groups followed by a 32-team knockout stage, a 64-team World Cup would comprise 128 matches – 24 more than in 2026 and double the total staged under the old 32-team format. Unless FIFA compresses the schedule or stages more games simultaneously, that could add roughly another week to a tournament already lasting more than five weeks. Plans are in ⁠place for Spain, Portugal and Morocco to stage most of the 2030 World Cup with Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay each hosting a single opening-round match to mark ⁠the tournament’s centenary.