Increase the number to 64 teams?

At the FIFA Council meeting in the middle of this week, one of the representatives of the host country of the 2030 World Cup, Uruguay, proposed increasing the number of teams participating in the final tournament from 48 to 64. This idea is aimed at increasing the diversity at the 100th anniversary of the World Cup. However, many people were surprised by the proposal, according to AS .

Will the World Cup expand to 64 teams?

"The proposal to analyze the organization of the World Cup with 64 teams to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World Cup in 2030 was spontaneously put forward by a member of the FIFA Council on the "trivial" agenda near the end of the FIFA Council meeting. The idea was surprisingly accepted by FIFA, since the organization has the duty to analyze any proposal from one of its council members," AS said.

With the 2026 World Cup set to take place in the United States, Mexico and Canada, FIFA has once again confirmed that there will be 48 teams participating in the finals for the first time, up from 32 teams in the 2022 World Cup. FIFA also announced that the 2030 World Cup will be hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, with additional matches to be held in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. In addition, the organization has also awarded the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia.

So far, only the 2026 World Cup has officially announced that there will be 48 teams participating in the finals. The 2030 and 2034 World Cups have not been specifically determined, but the number of 48 teams is still almost the same as the regulations.

However, with the current proposals and FIFA's great interest in the profits brought by the World Cup, it is not impossible that the world football body will seriously consider and study the possibility of increasing the number of teams participating in the finals to 64.

This will open up opportunities for low-ranked and low-level teams, such as those in the Southeast Asian region including Vietnam, Thailand or Indonesia, to have hope of participating in the world football festival in the near future.

In addition, if FIFA increases the number of teams participating in the World Cup to 64, they will also redistribute the qualifying spots in many regions. There is even a possibility that there will be no qualifying matches for the top teams, only for the lower-ranked teams, according to AS .

"If it happens, this will be one of the biggest changes to the World Cup," AS newspaper expressed.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/fifa-thay-doi-bat-thuong-ve-world-cup-tang-so-luong-len-64-doi-18525030707575645.htm