FIFA President Gianni Infantino said this week that a proposal to expand the World Cup finals from 48 to 64 teams will be formally reviewed by the organization's relevant commissioner once the current 2026 tournament concludes, opening a new debate over the future scale of global soccer's biggest event even before this year's edition has crowned a champion.

Infantino discussed the potential expansion in an interview with Swiss outlet Blue Sports, saying the next phase of growth for the tournament could be evaluated in time for the 2030 World Cup, which is set to mark the competition's 100th anniversary. That edition is already scheduled to be held across six countries, with Morocco, Portugal and Spain serving as primary hosts and Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay each staging a single commemorative match to honor the tournament's origins in Uruguay in 1930.

The current 2026 World Cup, being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, marked the tournament's first expansion to 48 teams, up from the 32-team format used since 1998. Under the new structure, 12 groups of four teams sent their top two finishers, along with the eight best third-place teams, into an expanded round of 32, pushing the total number of matches from 64 up to 104. Infantino has called the 48-team experiment a success, pointing to figures showing teams from every confederation scored goals and picked up points during the group stage, and noting that nine of Africa's 10 participating nations advanced out of the group phase. He has argued that widening the tournament's field gives smaller footballing nations a realistic chance to dream of World Cup qualification, which he says helps sustain development and investment in the sport globally.

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