Soccer’s governing physique FIFA will evaluation a proposal to develop the 2030 World Cup to 64 groups to mark the centenary of the game’s marquee occasion, it stated on Thursday.
The 2030 World Cup will likely be held in Morocco, Spain and Portugal, with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the place the inaugural version was staged, set to host three video games.
The World Cup has already been expanded from 32 to 48 groups for subsequent 12 months’s version within the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
“A proposal to analyse a 64-team FIFA World Cup to have fun the centenary of the FIFA World Cup in 2030 was spontaneously raised by a FIFA Council member within the ‘miscellaneous’ agenda merchandise close to the top of the FIFA Council assembly held on March 5 2025,” a FIFA spokesperson informed Reuters.
“The thought was acknowledged as FIFA has an obligation to analyse any proposal from one in all its Council members.”
Earlier on Thursday, the New York Instances stated the proposal was made by Ignacio Alonso, a delegate from Uruguay.
The newspaper, which didn’t identify its sources, stated the proposal was met with ‘shocked silence’ by the contributors.
It added that in keeping with three folks within the assembly, “FIFA was more likely to be guided by monetary and political advantages as a lot as sporting ones when it got here to taking a choice on the matter.
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“(FIFA president) Mr Infantino … described the proposal as an attention-grabbing one which ought to be analysed extra intently,” the New York Instances added, in keeping with “4 folks with direct data of the discussions.”