Infantino to back 64-team World Cup plan as he looks to curry favour with South America nations

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FT Desk

Gianni Infantino is set to fully back plans for an expanded 64-team World Cup as he looks to retain support from the South American continental football federation, CONMEBOL.

The 2026 World Cup received an expansion as 48 teams contested the tournament in North America. The decision proved controversial as the group stage consisted of 72 games just to eliminate 16 teams.

In the new format, the top two teams went through from each group as well as the eight best third-placed nations. It required the implementation of a new Round of 32 stage.

Some felt the decision diluted the quality of the World Cup.

And, that will be a concern if 64 teams are involved in 2030.

That is the proposal from CONMEBOL, who will host three special fixtures in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina to mark the centenary of the very first World Cup which took place in Uruguay in 1930.

After those games, the majority of the 2030 tournament will be played across Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

CONMEBOL want more teams involved, as that would mean South America gets to host more matches than the three already pencilled in, and Infantino is considering giving the governing body what they want in order to gain support in his presidential tenure at FIFA, which is under huge scrutiny at the moment.

Many football stakeholders believe his position has become untenable after he made plans to sell shares in the World Cup to private equity firms. The reaction to those plans was so negative that he was forced to scrap them within a few days.

Still, UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF, the governing bodies of European football, Asian Football and Central American football, have all demanded his removal as well as a full investigation into FIFA's governance.

Infantino has received support from the African federation as well as Argentina and Mexico, the latter of whom is going against CONCACAF.

The Times reports that the FIFA President was in Colombia on Friday for the inauguration of the country’s new right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella.

He and CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez, from Paraguay, reportedly discussed the expansion to 64 teams. Dominguez told Colombian media that “one cannot ignore the great work” done by Infantino.

The Italian previously admitted that the idea was on the table, telling Blue Sport in July:

"This is certainly an issue that will be looked at and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup.

"When you organise a World Cup, it's important that you organise it for the whole world. It's not just Europe and South America, but the entire world, effectively. Every nation should be able to dream of taking part in the World Cup.

"We can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high, and it's getting higher and higher everywhere in the world. If you don't give smaller countries the chance to participate in the World Cup, they also lose the incentive to keep improving."

As Infantino looks to curry favour with South American nations, he's received soms support from Donald Trump, who posted on social media:

“FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing president Gianni Infantino. He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again.”

The 2026 World Cup was twice as profitable as 2022 in Qatar, not four times.

In addition to the fallout from his scrapped FIFA Forward Enterprise plan, Infantino is also the subject of an ethics complaint by the Norwegian football association who, like many bodies, became increasingly concerned about his relationship with Trump as FIFA is supposed to remain a politically neutral organisation.