{"id":24463,"date":"2026-07-13T19:50:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=24463"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:50:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:50:54","slug":"fifa-president-says-future-expansion-to-64-team-world-cup-could-be-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=24463","title":{"rendered":"FIFA President Says Future Expansion to 64-Team World Cup Could Be Considered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ZURICH:<\/strong> FIFA President Gianni Infantino<\/strong> has said that football’s world governing body could consider expanding the FIFA World Cup<\/strong> from 48 to 64 teams<\/strong> in the future, stressing that the tournament should provide opportunities for nations from every continent rather than being dominated by a select few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in an interview with a Swiss broadcaster<\/strong>, Infantino said a proposal for a 64-team World Cup<\/strong> could be reviewed by FIFA’s relevant committees as part of ongoing discussions about the future of the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The World Cup is not only for Europe and South America,” Infantino said. “It belongs to the entire world, and every country should have the opportunity to dream of qualifying for the tournament.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FIFA chief argued that expanding participation would encourage football development in emerging nations by giving them a realistic pathway to compete on the sport’s biggest stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Infantino, the standard of football is improving steadily across the globe, and limiting World Cup participation could reduce motivation for smaller footballing nations to invest in player development and strengthen their national teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said providing more countries with the opportunity to compete at the World Cup would help accelerate the growth of the game worldwide and make international football more inclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infantino also described the introduction of the 48-team format<\/strong> for the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/strong> as a “100 percent success.”<\/strong> He praised the performances of teams from all confederations, saying the expanded competition had demonstrated that football talent is becoming more evenly distributed across different regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico<\/strong>, is the first edition of the tournament to feature 48 participating teams<\/strong>, an increase from the previous 32-team format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters of further expansion argue that a larger tournament would provide more nations with valuable international experience, promote football in developing regions, and increase the global appeal of the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, proposals to expand the tournament beyond 48 teams have also sparked debate within the football community. Critics have raised concerns that a 64-team World Cup could lead to a longer tournament schedule, greater logistical challenges, increased travel demands, and a potential reduction in the overall competitiveness of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any proposal to increase the number of participating teams would require discussion and approval through FIFA’s governance process before being implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the 48-team format remains in place, but Infantino’s comments suggest that FIFA is open to considering further expansion as part of its long-term vision for making the World Cup more accessible and representative of the global football community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZURICH: FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said that football’s world governing body could consider expanding the FIFA World Cup from 48 to 64 teams in the future, stressing that the tournament should provide opportunities for nations from every continent rather than being dominated by a select few. Speaking in an interview with a Swiss broadcaster, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440","service":"facebook","timestamp":1783954331,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24465,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24463\/revisions\/24465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}