Source: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWe can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high, and it\u2019s getting higher and higher everywhere in the world. If you don\u2019t give smaller countries the chance to participate in the World Cup, they also lose the incentive to keep improving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2030 World Cup, which will be held in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, will mark the tournament\u2019s 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n
It will also see the first three matches played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay to mark the centenary.<\/p>\n
In contrast to current plans, the 1930 tournament, which was won by Uruguay, featured just 13 teams.<\/p>\n
The 64-team expansion was first suggested in early 2025, when CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dom\u00ednguez led a consortium of South American football and political delegates, including the presidents of Paraguay and Uruguay, in meeting with Infantino in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen football is shared by everyone, the celebration is truly global,\u201d Dom\u00ednguez said.<\/p>\n
The current 48-team event was met with resistance, amid fears that opening the tournament to more nations could lead to an increase in uncompetitive matches.<\/p>\n
However, Cabo Verde defied such fears by reaching the round of 32 and performing admirably in a 2-3 defeat to Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Making it through the group stage and nearly upsetting Lionel Messi and Argentina, Cabo Verde were the surprise packet of the 2030 FIFA World Cup. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier)<\/span>Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nInfantino himself described the expansion as a \u2018huge success\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team played \u2060\u2060at a high level. Teams from every continent scored goals and earned at least one point,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cNine out \u2060\u2060of ten African teams reached the knockout stage. \u2060\u2060At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat just goes to show how important it is to include all teams \u2013 to give them this opportunity to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 64-team tournament would feature 128 matches – double the 2022 tournament, which involved only 32 nations.<\/p>\n
It has been suggested that a 64-team 2030 World Cup could lead to an increase in matches played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.<\/p>\n
Originally slated to host only one match each, the three countries could host four teams in an expanded group stage should plans to swell the event come to fruition.<\/p>\n
However, the proposal has been met with resistance, with Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa saying in 2025 that the plans would risk a slippery slope.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the issue remains open to change, then the door will not only be open to expanding the tournament to 64 teams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut someone might come along and demand raising the number to 132 teams. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere would we end up then? It would become chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
UEFA president Aleksander \u010ceferin has also described expansion as a \u2018bad idea\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The expansion of the 2026 FIFA World Cup to 48 teams hasn\u2019t been without its detractors. But FIFA aren\u2019t done with their plans to open the prestige event to even more nations as early as 2030, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirming discussions to increase the next World Cup to 64 teams are underway. Get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":252677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-252676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}