FIFA President Gianni Infantino is reportedly in favour of expanding the World Cup to 64 teams for the 2030 edition of the tournament. The update comes as the FIFA chief continues to face an uncertain future in the job after a proposal to sell the federation’s tournaments to private investors fell through.
Plans Shelved After Backlash
Plans that would have seen shares in the men's and women's World Cups, as well as the Club World Cup, were shelved following a substantial backlash. Since then, Infantino's future as FIFA President has been the subject of intense speculation, with UEFA leading the charge to boycott the federation’s tournaments if the proposals remained a possibility.
Support for Expansion
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Infantino, but now a fresh update has emerged claiming to provide his stance on the next World Cup in 2030. The Times have reported that Infantino would be in favour of the tournament being expanded once again to include 64 teams, despite the World Cup already increasing from 32 to 48 for this summer’s edition of the competition in North America.
The report claims that Infantino visited Colombia on Friday to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, where plans to expand the World Cup were supposedly discussed. The 2030 World Cup will be co-hosted by multiple countries once again, with Spain, Portugal and Morocco hosting the tournament, while there will also be a match scheduled to take place in each of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to celebrate the competition’s 100-year anniversary.
Conmebol Proposal and Trump Support
The proposals to expand the World Cup to 64 teams were put forward by Conmebol, the South American confederation, with the report claiming that Infantino will support those plans. With Infantino’s future uncertain, US President Donald Trump recently posted on Truth Social on Monday, where he expressed his belief that FIFA would be wrong to replace their current president.
"FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino," Trump wrote. "He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!"
