History made as six nations have already qualified for the 2030 World Cup: Who are they?

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FT Desk

The 2026 World Cup is officially over, with Spain emerging triumphant over Argentina at MetLife Stadium in the final on Sunday.

A tight affair, it was eventually won thanks to a solitary goal from substitute Ferran Torres, who scored in extra time to secure La Roja their second ever World Cup victory following their tournament success in South Africa in 2010.

The celebrations will be going on in Spain for quite some time, but for some, especially FIFA, attention must now turn to the 2030 edition of the tournament, which is set to take place across six nations and three continents for the very first time.

The 2030 World Cup will be a special edition of the tournament as it marks the 100-year anniversary of the first World Cup, which took place in Uruguay in 1930.

Three nations qualified for the 2026 World Cup as hosts - the United States, Mexico and Canada.

For the first time ever, no less than six nations have already qualified for the 2030 World Cup as hosts - Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

The majority of World Cup matches four years from now will take place in Spain, Portugal and Morocco but the South American nations will each host a special opening match to commemorate the centenary of the tournament.

To mark the anniversary, a celebration and match will take place at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay, where the inaugural World Cup final was held in 1930. In addition, one match will be staged at Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and another at Estadio Osvaldo Domínguez Dibb in Asuncion, Paraguay.

Thereafter, fixtures will move to Europe and North Africa.

"The intended schedule will provide approximately 11 to 12 days for travel and rest before the second game of the six teams playing in South America, with approximately five to six days for travel and rest for the remaining six group opponents, and all other participating teams," FIFA said in a statement in March 2026.

"The three matches played in South America will be brought forward to a few days before the official opening matches of the FIFA World Cup, which will be played in Morocco, Portugal and Spain."

Further expansion?

The 2026 World Cup already controversially went up to 48 teams from 32 as FIFA looked to expand their biggest competition.

There is a possibility that we could see a further increase in 2030, with a 64-team tournament mentioned previously by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"These are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup," Infantino told Blue Sport.

"When organising a World Cup, it's important to organise it for the whole world - not just Europe and South America, but effectively the entire world. Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup.

"You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high, and it's getting higher and higher, all over the world. If you don't give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they'll lack the incentive to keep improving."

The proposed expansion to 64 teams has drawn criticism from senior football officials. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described it as a"bad idea" for both the World Cup and its qualification system, while AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa warned that increasing the field further would result in "chaos."

It is unclear at this point whether the 64-team tournament will be just for 2030 or whether it will continue thereafter, with Saudi Arabia the hosts in 2034.