Will World Cup expand to 64 teams? Here's how bigger tournament could look

The first 48-team World Cup just ended and soccer executives are already talking about expanding the tournament to 64 countries for next time around.

"I think it is important that when you want to organize a World Cup, you do it for the whole ⁠world – not just Europe and South America," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said of a potentially expanded tournament. “If you don’t give ​smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”

The 2030 World Cup will technically have six host nations with Spain, Portugal and Morocco as the primary tournament hosts. Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay would each host opening matches as well in South America, to honor the 100th anniversary of the inaugural World Cup.

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South American federation president Alejandro Dominguez posted on social media about his desire to "celebrate the World Cup's centenary with a 64-team tournament" and the conversation will continue until FIFA makes a decision.

A hypothetical 64-team World Cup would feature a total of 128 total games, up from 104 in the 48-team 2026 tournament – and double the 64 games of the 2022 tournament.

Crucially, further expansion to 64 wouldn't add any games to each team's schedule, still playing three group matches before five potential knockout stage games.

Here's how a 64-team World Cup could look:

64-team World Cup format

A 64-team World Cup would theoretically have 16 groups of four teams – up from 12 in the expanded 2026 tournament – with each team still playing three group games.

Rather than the complications brought on by the eight best third-place finishers also advancing to the round of 32 (debuted in 2026), only the top two teams in each group would move on, restoring the simple calculus of the traditional 32-team World Cup.

The knockout stage format could remain the same as 2026, with rounds of 32 and 16 followed by the quarterfinals, semifinal and final.

How many teams would each continent get?

While the 64-team World Cup is still very much a hypothetical, here's a potential breakdown of how many slots each confederation got in the 2026 tournament and how many they could get in an even further expanded tournament.

The 2030 World Cup is unique with six host countries (Spain, Morocco, Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), meaning there would be fewer qualification slots available with each host guaranteed a place in the tournament.

UEFA (Europe)

• 2026: 16 teams
• 64-team World Cup: 21-22 teams

CAF (Africa)

• 2026: 9 teams
• 64-team World Cup: 12-13 teams

AFC (Asia)

• 2026: 8 teams
• 64-team World Cup: 11-12 teams

CONMEBOL (South America)

• 2026: 6 teams
• 64-team World Cup: 8-9 teams

CONCACAF (North/Central America)

• 2026: 6 teams
• 64-team World Cup: 8-9 teams

OFC (Oceania)

• 2026: 1 teams
• 64-team World Cup: 1.5-2 teams

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will World Cup expand to 64 teams? Here's how bigger tournament could look