Football fans hoping for an even bigger FIFA World Cup in 2030 just hit a major red card.
Victor Montagliani, President of CONCACAF—the football body for North and Central America and the Caribbean—has firmly rejected a South American proposal to expand the tournament to 64 teams.
In an interview with ESPN, Montagliani said the idea was not just premature, but potentially harmful to the entire global football structure.
“We haven’t even kicked off the 48-team World Cup yet, so personally, I don’t think that expanding to 64 teams should even be on the table,” he stated.
The World Cup is already set to grow from 32 to 48 teams starting with the 2026 edition in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. But CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez floated a bold idea: push the number up to 64 for the centenary tournament in 2030—a special edition to be hosted jointly by Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and three South American nations.
Dominguez pitched the expansion as a one-time celebration of 100 years of World Cup football. But others aren’t buying it.
Montagliani isn’t alone in his opposition. UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin already dismissed the plan as a “bad idea,” while Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said the matter should be considered settled.
“If the issue remains open to change, then the door will not only be open to expanding the tournament to 64 teams, but someone might come along and demand raising the number to 132. Where would we end up then? It would become chaos,” Sheikh Salman warned.
Despite the strong pushback from key football leaders, FIFA has yet to officially weigh in. Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom only said the proposal from South America would be “analysed.”
So for now, it looks like the world will stick to 48 teams in 2030. And the message from most of football’s power brokers is clear: bigger isn’t always better.
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