Suggestion of a gigantic World Cup in five years time not popular | OneFootball

President of the football federation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean is not keen on proposals to expand the 2030 FIFA World Cup to include 64 teams

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) has voiced opposition to a proposal to expand the men's World Cup in 2030 to include 64 teams. The plans, put forward by the South American governing body CONMEBOL, have also drawn criticism from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Despite the prospective gains which could be made financially for the federations involved, through increased TV contracts and football streams, the idea has not been popular.

The tentative proposals from CONMEBOL, which would likely see almost every country in their federation qualify, have drawn the ire of almost all corners of the footballing world.

The upcoming 2030 World Cup is set to be hosted by six nations across three continents. The opening matches will take place in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay before the remainder and lion's share of the tournament moves on to Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Victor Montagliani, President of CONCACAF, expressed his disapproval towards the expansion proposal during an interview with ESPN.

He stated that he does not believe expanding the men's World Cup to include more teams would benefit the tournament or the broader football ecosystem.

CONCACAF President, Victor Montagliani, said:

"We haven't even kicked off the new 48-team World Cup yet. So personally, I don't think that expanding to 64 teams should even be on the table."

The decision for a previous expansion was made in a unanimous vote at a FIFA congress in 2017, which increased team participation from 32 teams up to its current format of hosting forty-eight teams for future tournaments, starting with the USA-Mexico-Canada co-hosted event in 2026.

However, CONMEBOL then proposed further expansion as part of marking the competition's centenary celebrations.

While the 48-team 2026 World Cup expansion gained widespread support, this new call from CONMEBOL to bring even more teams in has received quite the opposite response.

If accepted, this new proposal would double the number of matches in the tournament from sixty-four, used between the years 1998 and 2022, up to one hundred and twenty-eight matches under the proposed format.

This idea has been met with resistance from other football governing bodies, aside from CONCACAF.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, inarguably the most influential of the game's regional leaders, described the proposal as a "bad idea", while AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa warned it could lead to "chaos".

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, president of the AFC, said:

"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 teams. Where would we end up then? It would become chaos."

The fate of the proposal from CONMEBOL will likely be discussed at FIFA's 75th congress, scheduled for May 15 in Paraguay.