{"id":51554,"date":"2026-05-08T13:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=51554"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:37:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:07:01","slug":"fifa-eyes-historic-64-team-world-cup-in-2030-the-biggest-tournament-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/fifa-world-cup\/fifa-eyes-historic-64-team-world-cup-in-2030-the-biggest-tournament-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA eyes historic 64-team World Cup in 2030: The biggest tournament ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"auto\">The FIFA World Cup continues to grow, and momentum is building for what could become the largest edition in its history. With the <strong>2026 World Cup<\/strong> already set to feature <strong>48 teams<\/strong>, discussions are intensifying around expanding the <strong>2030 tournament<\/strong> to a massive <strong>64 teams<\/strong> to mark the competition\u2019s centenary.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">From 32 to 48 to 64? The Evolution of the World Cup<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The men\u2019s FIFA World Cup expanded from 32 to 48 teams for the first time in 2026, hosted across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This change allowed more nations to participate and increased the number of matches significantly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Now, as the football world looks toward <strong>2030<\/strong>, South American football leaders, particularly from CONMEBOL, are pushing for an even bolder expansion. CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dom\u00ednguez has publicly described a <strong>64-team World Cup<\/strong> as his \u201cdream,\u201d calling it a one-time celebration for the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">This proposal would see roughly 30% of FIFA\u2019s 210+ member associations qualify for the finals \u2014 a huge leap that promises broader global representation.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">What This Means for Fans and Teams<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">A 64-team format would likely feature more group stages and knockout rounds, offering underdogs greater opportunities to shine on the world stage. Fans could see exciting new matchups and a longer, more inclusive tournament.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">For powerhouses like Brazil, Argentina, and European giants, qualification would remain relatively straightforward, but the expanded field would create more thrilling storylines overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FIFA World Cup continues to grow, and momentum is building for what could become the largest edition in its\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":51555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4658],"tags":[984],"class_list":["post-51554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51556,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51554\/revisions\/51556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}