CONCACAF President, Victor Montagliani, is the latest FIFA Council Member to express his opposition against a potential 64-team format for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Montagliani recently told ESPN that expanding the FIFA World Cup in 2030 to 64 teams ‘shouldn’t even be on the table’ as the competition has yet to implement its latest expansion to 48 teams for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.
He said: “At CONCACAF, we’ve shown that we are open to change by supporting the Women’s World Cup expansion and the continuous evolution of our Confederation’s men’s and women’s national team and club events.
“I don’t believe expanding the men’s World Cup to 64 teams is the right move for the tournament itself and the broader football ecosystem, from national teams to club competitions, leagues, and players.
“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 proposal was made by Uruguayan Football Association President Ignacio Alonso last year, who believes the 2030 edition of the World Cup should be expanded to 64 teams as a ‘one-off’ celebration of the competition’s 100th anniversary.
The 2030 FIFA World Cup is set to be held across six different countries: Argentina, Chile, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay. The three South American countries will host ‘centenary celebration matches’ for their respective countries for one group stage game. The rest of the games at the tournament will be contested across Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
More recently, CONMEBOL has officially been put forward during a CONMEBOL Congress meeting, which FIFA President, Gianni Infantino attended.
CONMEBOL President, Alejandro Dominguez, lodged the proposal at the meeting, stating that the 64-team format “will allow all countries to have the opportunity to live the world experience and so nobody on the planet is left out of the party”.
Infantino and FIFA have reiterated that it is their duty to “analyse any proposal from one of its Council members”.
Despite CONMEBOL’s efforts to expand the team format of the World Cup again, this has come with backlash from FIFA Council Members and other continental football organisations.
UEFA President, Alexsander Ceferin, took particular objection to the 64-team proposal, revealing it would be a “bad idea”.
He spoke at a UEFA Council Meeting recently, stating: “I think it’s not a good idea for the World Cup itself, and it’s not a good idea for our qualifiers as well. So I’m not supporting that idea. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s strange that we didn’t know anything before this proposal at the FIFA council.”
Ceferin and Montagliani are not alone in their disapproval. Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), also raised his concern with the proposal, admitting that it would cause “chaos”.
He 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.”
Many football insiders believe that the continuation of expanding the World Cup team format would devalue the accomplishment of qualifying for sport’s most-watched competition, while also hampering the value of qualifying matches.
There are also concerns brewing between players, managers and other officials regarding player welfare as the football schedule continues to add more matches to new and revamped competitions.
With CONMEBOL’s proposal officially forwarded to FIFA, it will now be discussed in FIFA Congress before a formal vote can be formalised.
