South America shock request: World Cup 2030 has 64 teams, opportunity for Vietnam team

Is it possible to add 16 teams to the 2030 World Cup?

The upcoming World Cup in 2026 in the United States, Mexico and Canada will be the first to feature 48 teams, an increase of 16 teams from previous editions of just 32 teams since 1998.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams.

Photo: Reuters

But four years from now, with Spain, Portugal and Morocco co-hosting, and Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay also hosting their first matches to mark the 100th anniversary of the World Cup, CONMEBOL has officially put forward a shock proposal to increase the tournament to 64 teams, meaning an additional 16 teams from the 2026 World Cup.

"We believe that the 100th anniversary of the World Cup will be a unique event, because you only turn 100 once. And that is why we propose to celebrate this for the first time with 64 teams, taking place on three continents at the same time. So that all countries have the opportunity to experience the World Cup, and so that no one on the planet is left out at the celebration, although it is celebrated everywhere, but it is our celebration, of world football ", emphasized Alejandro Dominguez.

Also in his statement, Mr. Alejandro Dominguez explained that this proposal (increasing the number of teams in the 2030 World Cup to 64) will only happen once, because the 2030 World Cup will mark the 100th anniversary of the first tournament held in Uruguay in 1930. This is also the first time the Uruguay team won the championship when they beat Argentina 4-2 in the final match.

Recently, the President of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Mr. Aleksander Ceferin, criticized the idea of ​​expanding the World Cup to 64 teams in 2030. He said: "In my opinion, it is not a good idea for the World Cup, and it is not a good idea for our (UEFA) qualifying. So I do not support it. I do not know where it comes from, but it is strange that we did not know anything until the proposal at the FIFA council."

In March, at the FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) General Assembly meeting, representatives of the Uruguayan Football Federation proposed expanding the World Cup to 64 teams in 2030. FIFA then said it would analyze and consider applying it. The reason is that the world football body always accepts all ideas about organizing tournaments, considers and evaluates whether they are feasible or not, before approving or rejecting them.

If the 2030 World Cup has 64 teams, the current Vietnam U.17 team should be invested in to create resources for the future.

Photo: VFF

This idea has just been taken to a new level, with the support of CONMEBOL, an organization with a very important voice in FIFA. So far, FIFA has not made any comments regarding increasing the number of teams participating in the 2030 World Cup to 64.

According to the world press, FIFA will most likely support this idea, due to many convincing reasons given by CONMEBOL (only increase once on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the World Cup). Besides that, there are commercial factors and revenue, television copyright to many other countries in the world...

If the decision to increase the number of teams participating in the 2030 World Cup to 64 is approved, teams in the Southeast Asian region such as Vietnam and Thailand will certainly have the opportunity to win tickets to participate.

Right now, the U.17 players of Vietnam and Thailand have just participated in the Asian tournament, so they need to be focused on training and investing more to become a resource for the national team in the future, in order to seize every opportunity to participate in the World Cup that may take place.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nam-my-yeu-cau-soc-world-cup-2030-co-64-doi-co-hoi-cho-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-185250411091624144.htm