FIFA President Gianni Infantino says the organisation will consider expanding the FIFA World Cup from 48 to 64 teams after the 2026 tournament, citing the rising quality of teams and the success of the expanded format.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said the organisation will consider expanding the World Cup from 48 to 64 teams, describing the idea as something that will be formally examined by the relevant committees following the conclusion of the ongoing 2026 edition.
Infantino made the remarks in an interview with Blue News, a Swiss news platform, on the sidelines of the 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
64 teams “definitely something to look into”
Infantino framed the potential expansion as a matter of global fairness and competitive development, tying the inclusion of smaller nations to the incentive structures that drive footballing progress.
“That’s definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” he said.
He elaborated on his reasoning.
“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,” Infantino said.
48-team expansion already a “100 percent” success
Infantino was emphatic in his assessment of the decision to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams for the 2026 edition, pointing to the performance of African nations as a headline indicator of the format’s success.
“It’s been a huge success with 48 teams. Every team played at a high level,” he said.
“Teams from every continent scored goals and earned at least one point. Nine out of ten African teams reached the knockout stage. At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa. That just goes to show how important it is to include all teams, to give them this opportunity to participate.”
Context
The 2026 World Cup marked the first edition of the expanded 48-team format, a change Infantino had championed since his election as FIFA president in 2016. The tournament is co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, making it the first World Cup held across three countries.
The next edition, the 2030 World Cup, is the centenary of the competition and will be hosted primarily by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with symbolic matches held in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina to mark the centenary. Uruguay hosted the inaugural World Cup in 1930.
A further expansion to 64 teams would represent a doubling of the original 32-team format and would require significant changes to the tournament structure, host capacity requirements and the international match calendar.
While Infantino’s comments stop short of a formal proposal, his framing of the idea as a committee-level discussion signals that the conversation is now officially on FIFA’s institutional agenda rather than a speculative talking point.
For African football federations, a 64-team World Cup would likely mean additional qualifying slots on a continent where nine of ten nations advanced from the 2026 group stage, a result that strengthens the case that Africa’s allocation has been historically underweighted relative to its competitive depth.
