President Concacaf Victor Montagliani joined further confederations in the opposite design of the leader Conmebol Alejandro Domínguez to expand World Cup to 64 teams for the publication of an international tournament 2030.
Domínguguez presented an official proposal to expand the competition during the online session of the ruling FIFA council and insisted that the tournament increases from the traditional 32 participants to 64.
“In Concacaf, we have shown that we are open to changes in the support of the expansion of the World Cup and the constant development of male and female national teams and club events of our confederation,” Montagliani ESPN said.
“I do not believe that the expansion of the World Men’s Cup to 64 teams is the right step for the tournament itself and a wider football ecosystem, from national teams to club competition, league and players.”
FIFA will already test the new 48-team format for the 2026 World Championship, but Domínguez stressed that more can be done with a larger scale.
“We haven’t even kicked the new World Championship of 48 teams, so I don’t personally think that expanding to 64 teams should even be on the table.”
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin also expressed his disagreement with Domínguez’s proposal, described the idea of expansion “Bad idea”.
“I think it’s a bad idea – it’s not a good idea for the World Championship itself and it’s not a good idea for our qualifications,” he said. “So I don’t support this idea. I don’t know where it came from, but it is strange that we didn’t know anything before this proposal in the FIFA Council.”
While the President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa claims that growth would stimulate chaos.
“If the problem remains open to change, the door will not only be open to expand the tournament to 64 teams,” Salman said to the 35 Congress.
“But someone could come and demand an increase in the number of 132 teams. Where would we end up? It would be chaos.”
The World Cup 2026 will first test a new format in the history of the tournament by seeing 48 teams about a sought -after trophy at stadiums in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
