FIFA pushes plan for 64-team World Cup

FIFA president Gianni Infantino

FIFA has accelerated plans to examine a dramatic expansion of the men’s World Cup from 48 to 64 teams, setting an August 14 deadline for a decision on whether the enlarged tournament could be introduced as early as the 2030 edition.

The move comes at a particularly turbulent moment for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose separate plan to create a new commercial arm and sell minority stakes to private investors has triggered fierce opposition from several of football’s most powerful governing bodies.

Documents seen by ESPN show that FIFA launched a consultation on Thursday over the proposed expansion, giving interested agencies only days to submit proposals before a decision is expected on August 14. A full analysis is scheduled for September 11.

The speed of the process has already raised eyebrows, particularly because the 2026 World Cup was the first to feature 48 teams and the tournament has only just concluded.

From 48 to 64 teams

FIFA's research brief says the governing body is seeking an independent agency to assess “whether and how expanding the FIFA World Cup from 48 to 64 participating teams, starting with the 2030 edition,” would affect the tournament and the wider football ecosystem.

The proposal would add another 16 nations to the World Cup only four years after the tournament's expansion from 32 teams.

Infantino had already signalled earlier this month that FIFA would examine the possibility after declaring the 48-team 2026 tournament a major success.

But the idea has immediately reopened questions over the tournament's size, scheduling, player workload and competitive quality.

A 64-team World Cup would mean 96 matches under a conventional format, compared with the 72 group-stage and knockout matches involving 48 teams. Analysts have also raised logistical concerns over stadium requirements, tournament length and the burden on players.

For FIFA, however, the proposal would offer another route to broaden the global reach of its flagship competition and potentially increase commercial opportunities.

Infantino under pressure

The timing could hardly be more politically sensitive.

Infantino is already facing growing resistance over his plan for FIFA Forward Enterprise, a new FIFA-owned commercial subsidiary that the governing body says would consolidate its commercial and event operations.

FIFA says the entity would be valued initially at $20 billion and could raise up to $4.2 billion by selling minority, non-controlling stakes to carefully selected long-term investors. The proceeds, according to FIFA, would be channelled into football development programmes.

But UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation have all rejected the proposal or demanded major changes.

UEFA has been particularly outspoken, arguing that football's most valuable competitions should not effectively be opened to outside investors. European football officials have also discussed boycotting FIFA competitions if the proposal proceeds.

The AFC has called for an urgent review of FIFA's governance framework, while Concacaf has joined UEFA and the AFC in opposing the proposed structure.

The resistance has now reached Infantino's inner circle.

Senior adviser quits

Carlos Cordeiro, a former U.S. Soccer Federation president and senior adviser to Infantino, resigned on Friday in protest against the investment proposal.

Cordeiro, who has a background in investment banking, described the FFE proposal as “a bad deal for football” and said he could not support FIFA selling a stake in the World Cup-related commercial business to private investors.

His resignation represents another significant blow to Infantino as he attempts to convince FIFA's 211 member associations to approve the new structure.

FIFA says member associations will ultimately have to support the plan and that the FIFA Council must also approve it.

Expansion could deepen the revolt

The 64-team proposal risks becoming another battleground between Infantino and the regional confederations.

The European opposition is particularly significant because UEFA represents 55 FIFA member associations. Concacaf has another 35, meaning opposition from those two regions alone represents a substantial bloc of FIFA's membership.

Adding a controversial World Cup expansion to an already explosive governance dispute could therefore make Infantino's political challenge even more difficult.

The concerns are not limited to governance.

UEFA has warned that the growing number of international competitions and matches is already putting pressure on players and domestic leagues. A larger World Cup would inevitably add more fixtures and further stretch the international calendar.

Critics also fear that increasing the field could dilute the quality of the tournament by giving more countries access to the biggest stage while reducing the number of high-stakes matches involving the world's strongest teams.

2030 now in sight

FIFA's consultation specifically identifies the 2030 World Cup as the potential starting point for a 64-team tournament.

That would represent an extraordinary leap in the competition's scale.

The 2030 edition is already scheduled to be hosted across Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with centenary matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Expanding the field would introduce additional logistical demands into a tournament already spread across three continents.

FIFA nevertheless appears determined to examine the possibility.

The governing body says the independent research is intended to determine the wider impact of the proposed expansion rather than automatically approve it.

But the compressed timetable — consultation launched July 30, agency proposals due August 7 and a FIFA decision expected August 14 — has raised questions over how deeply the proposal can realistically be examined before a decision is made.

A bigger World Cup, a bigger fight

Infantino has spent much of his presidency expanding FIFA's competitions, commercial reach and development programmes. The 48-team World Cup was one of his signature reforms.

A 64-team tournament would take that philosophy even further.

Yet the latest proposal arrives at a moment when Infantino is already battling resistance from the very confederations whose support he needs to maintain FIFA's political stability.

His investment plan has produced an unprecedented backlash, and the resignation of a senior adviser has added to the pressure.

Now, with the prospect of another World Cup expansion placed on the table, Infantino faces a delicate balancing act: convince FIFA's members that a larger tournament represents football's global future without further alienating the regional bodies that control much of the game's political machinery.

The August 14 decision could therefore be about far more than the number of teams at the 2030 World Cup.

It could become another test of how much political capital Infantino has left.