How could the new World Cup work if Fifa expands it to 64 teams?

In partnership with

Evening Standard

·7 March 2025

How could the new World Cup work if Fifa expands it to 64 teams?

Spain, Morocco and Portugal 2030 could be longest World Cup ever

Fifa is considering increasing the number of teams at the World Cup to 64 for the 2030 tournament, which would double the number that played at the 2022 tournament.

OneFootball Videos

The next tournament, held in the US, Mexico and Canada next year, will increase the number of teams from 32 to 48 but the figure could substantially grow again.

Playing a 64-team tournament was an idea put forward by a Fifa member in a meeting on Wednesday and will now be considered. The proposal has been reported as a potential one-off to celebrate 100 years of the World Cup, which was first held in Uruguay in 1930.

Another idea is to play a special centenary match in Uruguay to mark the occasion.

A Fifa source told the Guardian: “A proposal to analyse a 64-team Fifa World Cup to celebrate the centenary of the Fifa World Cup in 2030 was spontaneously raised by a Fifa council member in the ‘miscellaneous’ agenda item near the end of the Fifa council meeting held on 5 March 2025. The idea was acknowledged, as Fifa has a duty to analyse any proposal from one of its council members.”

Qualification for the next World Cup will be a little easier for some teams, with 16 extra spots up for grabs – three of the extra slots having been assigned to Europe.

Here is what it could all mean in terms of how games will be played.

How could the new World Cup work if Fifa expands it to 64 teams?

Fifa has not said how the expanded World Cup could operate or even if it will happen – so it is too early to say exactly how it will work.

But looking at how the next tournament will work does offer some clues as to what could happen if a 64-team World Cup goes ahead.

There have been 32 teams in every tournament from 1998 to 2022

PA

How will the 2026 World Cup be played?

Fifa has previously said it will enlarge the tournament to 48 teams. This will see:

Eight or nine teams from Asia,
Nine or ten teams from Africa
Three host nations
Three to five north or central American teams (not including the hosts)
Six or seven teams from South America
One or two teams from Oceania
Sixteen teams from Europe

It will see 12 groups of four play three matches with the top two advancing. The third- place teams will then be compared in a table and the eight with the most points will also advance.

The final 32 teams will then go into a knockout.

Unless Fifa changes its strategy, this is also how the 2030 World Cup will also be played.

Future wall charts might become more complicated

PA

What if Fifa expands to 64 teams?

A 64-team World Cup would see around one-quarter of all the 211-member associations qualify for the finals.

If the existing four-team group structure continues, it would see 16 groups of four, potentially with the top two qualifying to play in the round of 32.

An alternative could be eight groups of eight, although this would vastly increase the number of games played – providing that the top four and not top one or two were to qualify.

Fifa may also consider the so-called Swiss system adopted for this season’s Uefa Champions League, which sees all of the teams pooled in one big table, even though they do not all play each other, with the top bracket qualifying after a set number of games.

One more option could be an FA Cup-style knockout from the get go, although this would be impractical for some teams if they have travelled far and wide to play only one game.