World Cup: FIFA studying impact of expanding to 64 teams for 2030 edition

FIFA’s World Cup 2026 expansion was their first since 1998, but the 2030 edition could rise to 64 teams.FIFA is studying whether to expand the World Cup from 48 to 64 teams for the 2030 edition in a move that could reshape football’s showpiece tournament when it celebrates its centennial.World football’s governing body wants to appoint an independent agency to assess the ambitious expansion plan, which would add another 16 nations to ⁠a tournament that had already grown from 32 to 48 teams in 2026.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Why is UEFA threatening FIFA boycott? Infantino’s World Cup plan explainedlist 2 of 4AFC ‘stands in solidarity’ with UEFA and CONCACAF over FIFA World Cup planslist 3 of 4Infantino’s senior adviser resigns over ‘bad’ FIFA World Cup planlist 4 of 4FIFA defiant over World Cup investment plan: ‘nobody is selling football’end of list“FIFA wishes to appoint an independent agency to determine whether and how expanding the FIFA World Cup from 48 to 64 participating national teams, starting with the 2030 edition, would impact on the tournament proposition,” it said in a research brief seen by the news agency Reuters.South American confederation CONMEBOL had officially proposed hosting the 2030 World ‌Cup with 64 teams last year, allowing more countries the opportunity to join in the celebrations for the tournament’s centennial edition.The 2026 edition in the US, Canada and Mexico was the first since 1998 to move away from the 32-team format, adding four more groups and an extra knockout round in the process, resulting in 104 matches over more than five weeks.The accelerated study comes on the heels of FIFA’s plan to create a $20bn subsidiary to run the World Cup and its other events with external investors, a move that has attracted criticism and a ⁠UEFA decision to boycott FIFA events.Al Jazeera has contacted FIFA for comment.UEFA and FIFA could be on another World Cup collision courseUEFA President ⁠Aleksander Ceferin said last year that expanding the World Cup to 64 teams was not a good idea.