64 team World Cup finals proposal now put forward makes perfect sense but only if… | OneFootball

An interesting proposal has been put forward for the World Cup finals to be a 64 team tournament.

FIFA having held discussions about this yesterday (Tuesday 23 September 2025).

The 2026 World Cup finals will see an expansion from 32 teams to 48.

These proposals put forward by South American leaders would see that increased to 64 for the 2030 World Cup finals, if the idea was voted in favour of.

The 2030 World Cup finals will be held in Spain, Morocco and Portugal, but with currently one game to be played in each of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.

This is to mark the fact that this will mark 100 years since the very first World Cup finals in 1930, which were held in Uruguay.

The South American nations believing that it would make it even more special, 100 years of World Cup finals, if the 20230 version is increased to 64 teams, which I take it they’d assume, would presumably mean more games to be held in South America.

The whole football calendar is crazy these days but then I thought…this 64 team World Cup finals idea is a brilliant idea, on one condition.

As Newcastle United fans and indeed the fans of pretty much every other Premier League club the same, plus indeed those in other leagues, in the UK and overseas, the very worst things these days is these ridiculous international breaks.

Back in the day, league schedules weren’t disrupted. Players would play for their club on a Saturday, go away and play for their countries midweek, then return and play for their clubs the following Saturday.

Instead, we now have a two week club break in September, October, November and March each season for World Cup and Euro qualifiers AND friendlies, plus they have international matches in June as well.

Why not get rid of all qualifying for the World Cup finals (and Euros), get rid of all these during the club season internationals. Then just have huge international World Cup finals every four years (and Euros the same every four years), with all the major countries automatically qualifying (less major countries having much reduced play-offs for a number of additional places) and get rid of the tedious interruptions to club football…

The Athletic report – 24 September 2025:

‘FIFA held discussions on Tuesday about expanding the men’s World Cup to be a 64-team tournament in 2030 after receiving a formal pitch from a delegation of influential South American leaders.

The tournament has already grown in size in recent decades, having gone from 16 to 24 teams in 1982, then increasing to the 32-nation format in 1998, before becoming a 48-team competition for next summer’s World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

A 64-team competition would mean over 30 per cent of FIFA 211 national teams would compete at the World Cup.