FIFA to Deliberate on Expanding 2030 World Cup to 64 Teams

By Amaechi Agbo

World football governing body, the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) will in New York this week, discuss proposals to expand the 2030 edition of the FIFA World Cup to 64 teams.
A 64-team World Cup would see almost a third of FIFA’s 211 member associations play-ing in the finals and it would make qualifying little more than a formality for the strong-est sides.
The proposal was first raised at the FIFA Council meeting in March by Uruguay FA president Ignacio Alonso.
In May, his confederation president Dominguez said “no one should be left out” of the 2030 World Cup.
The first 24-team World Cup finals was in Spain in 1982, with the tournament expanded to 32 teams at France 98.
The first 48-team World Cup will take place next summer across the United States, Can-ada and Mexico – expanded from the current 32-team format – but there are serious at-tempts from some to make it even bigger for 2030.
That tournament will be the first to be spread across three continents to mark its 100-year anniversary, with main hosts Spain, Morocco and Portugal being joined by Argen-tina, Paraguay and Uruguay in hosting opening-round matches.
FIFA’s official position has always been it will discuss expansion ideas with its stake-holders and it is duty bound to consider any proposals from its council members.
The FIFA council would make the ultimate decision, but there are no signs it is some-thing expected to be made imminently.
The pace of change has been remarkable, since the long-standing 16-team format in-creased to 24 teams in 1982.
It became a 32-team event in 1998 before being expanded to 48 teams for next year’s showpiece.
Adding another 16 teams for 2030 would mean the World Cup had doubled in size in eight years and would mean more than 30% of Fifa’s current 211 members would partic-ipate.