UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has firmly criticized FIFA’s potential plan to expand the World Cup to 64 teams for the 2030 tournament, calling it “a bad idea.”
While the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada will already see the tournament grow from 32 to 48 teams, a suggestion to push it even further was raised by Ignacio Alonso, head of the Uruguayan Football Federation, at the FIFA Council meeting in March.
Ceferin didn’t hold back his disapproval during UEFA’s congress in Belgrade, stating, “I think it’s not a good idea for the World Cup itself and not a good idea for our qualifiers either. It’s a strange proposal, and I don’t know where it came from.”
The 2030 World Cup, set to mark its centenary, will be hosted across three continents: Portugal, Spain, and Morocco leading the charge, with additional matches in South America—Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay—honoring the tournament’s 1930 roots in Uruguay.
Saudi Arabia is expected to host the 2034 World Cup.
