2030 World Cup will be 64 teams, says South American football president

The 2030 World Cup will be expanded to 64 teams according to the president of the South American football confederation.

Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, confirmed last week that the prospect of a further 16 nations taking part “will be examined and discussed”.

Now, Alejandro Dominguez, the head of Conmebol and a Fifa vice-president, has suggested that the expansion is a done deal. The 2030 tournament is predominantly split between Morocco, Portugal and Spain, but Conmebol nations will host the opening matches.

Dominguez posted on X: “The next one is at home! In 2030, the World Cup is coming to Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. It will ‌be ⁠a great opportunity for football to celebrate the World Cup’s centenary with a 64-team tournament.”

Conmebol appears to be among those lobbying behind the scenes for the competition to go up to 64 teams. That would be double the size of World Cups before 2026.

A 32-nation competition had been in place between 1998 and 2022. Dominguez’s comments come just a day after the first 48-team tournament concluded in North America.

Fifa has been contacted for comment, but Dominguez’s comments are more definitive than Infantino’s last week. In an interview with Swiss publication Bluewin, the Fifa president said: “It [a 64-team tournament] is definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” reiterating that the tournament was “for the whole world, not just Europe and South America”.

He added: “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.”

Infantino had previously claimed the expansion to 48 teams has been “100 per cent a success” despite criticism from fans and even teams. Ghana head coach Carlos Queiroz had described the expansion’s impact as “vulgar and ordinary”.