FIFA to examine 64-team World Cup for 2030. What could that mean for TV rights?

Credit: REUTERS/Kai PfaffenbachAfter the success of the first-ever 48-team World Cup this summer, FIFA will examine yet another expansion to its quadrennial tournament.FIFA president Gianni Infantino told Swiss media outlet Bluewin that the potential for a 64-team tournament in 2030 “will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” according to a report in The Athletic. The 2030 World Cup is slated to be held across six nations and three continents, with Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay scheduled to host one match a piece at the start of the competition to commemorate the inaugural World Cup, hosted 100 years prior in Uruguay.

The remainder of the planned 48-team tournament would take place in Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.However, an expansion to 64 teams could chance that calculus, potentially allowing Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay to each host an entire group for the tournament, rather than just a single match.“Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup,” Infantino said.

“You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high—and it’s getting higher and higher, all over the world.”The FIFA president added: “If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”It’s unclear whether the World Cup would permanently expand to 64 teams, or if FIFA would choose to expand the tournament just once to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup.

A 64-team format would make for a neater group stage in which the top two finishers in 16 groups advance to the Round of 32. One criticism of this year’s 48-team format was that an entire group stage was played just to eliminate 16 teams, with the top eight third-place finishers advanced to the knockout rounds. A 64-team field would mark a return to how the World Cup group stage typically operated, just with more groups.

Assuming FIFA were to pick this format (16 groups of four tea