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Infantino meets CONMEBOL leaders to discuss 64-team World Cup idea
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The World Cup in 2030 that will mark 100 years from the first tournament could feature record-breaking number of participants

FIFA president Gianni Infantino sat down in New York on Tuesday with CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez and South American federation leaders to discuss the possibility of expanding the men’s 2030 World Cup from 48 to 64 teams.

The proposal, first raised by a Uruguayan delegate in March during a FIFA Council meeting, was formally presented to Infantino for the first time this week. Joining Domínguez were the federation presidents of Argentina and Uruguay, Paraguay’s president Santiago Pena, and Uruguay’s president Yamandu Orsi.

“We believe in a historic 2030 World Cup!” Domínguez wrote afterwards on social media. “Thank you, President Gianni Infantino, for welcoming us and sharing this journey toward the centennial of football’s greatest celebration. We want to call for unity, creativity, and believing big. Because when football is shared by everyone, the celebration is truly global.”

The World Cup will expand from 32 to 48 teams in 2026, but a further jump to 64 would be unprecedented. It would create a 128-match tournament—twice the size of the editions held between 1998 and 2022.

The 2030 event is already the most ambitious in the tournament’s history, with six co-hosts spanning three continents: Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Montevideo is scheduled to stage one symbolic match to mark the centenary of the first World Cup in 1930.

Argentina FA president Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia also hailed the talks. “It was truly a pleasure to have represented our country at this important meeting,” he wrote. “We are family and we have done our part to request this meeting so our dream can become reality.”

Domínguez has argued that the centennial edition must be unique. “As we get closer to the date, we must reiterate that this cannot be just another event, it cannot be just another World Cup. We believe this is a once-in-a-century opportunity to have the group stage matches played in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay,” he said.