FIFA president Gianni Infantino has hinted that a further expansion of the World Cup aimed at increasing the number of teams participating in the finals to 64 will be discussed after this year’s tournament.
The 2026 finals in Canada, Mexico, and the United States have seen 48 teams participate for the first time, with the FIFA boss among the proponents of the controversial decision that provoked much debate since the tournament kicked off on June 11, 2026.
The Italian holds that the expansion will give the small nation the incentive to keep improving with prospects of featuring in a World Cup.
“These are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup,” Infantino told Swiss broadcaster Blue Sport when asked if the tournament could grow to 64 teams.
Allow every nation to dream
“When organising a World Cup, it’s important to organise it for the whole world, not just Europe and South America, but effectively the entire world. 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. If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”
While terming the inaugural 48-team World Cup a huge success, Infantino cited the progression of nine out of 10 African teams to the knockout stages.
“At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa,” he said. “That just goes to show how important it is to include all teams, to give them this opportunity to participate.”
Next editions
The size of the World Cup field was increased to 32 teams in 1998. The next finals in 2030 are to be co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, and the 2034 tournament will be in Saudi Arabia.
Other than the change in structure, the FIFA boss has in the past been forced to justify the changes, including hydration breaks and the ticket prices.
“This is a topic that sparks a lot of debate,” he said. “After all, we don’t want to get everything perfect; we like to give everyone something to disagree with… no, joking aside. Last year, during the Club World Cup in the USA, there were cooling breaks whenever it was very hot.
“These short breaks occurred in about 60 per cent of the matches, but not in the other 40% because the temperature wasn’t as high. There were many complaints, as the feeling was that all teams should face the same conditions,” he said.
