The key facts

  • Infantino privately informed the six continental confederations that he would not pursue further tournament expansion if re-elected
  • The 64-team initiative came from CONMEBOL to mark the centenary of the first World Cup
  • The decision followed a dispute over the FIFA Forward Enterprise project, which FIFA had already abandoned in August

Abandoning the tournament expansion

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has abandoned a plan to expand the men's World Cup from 48 to 64 teams for the 2030 tournament, which coincides with the centenary of the first World Cup. This was reported by the British newspaper The Times, citing the course of the organization leader's re-election campaign. According to the newspaper, Infantino privately informed the heads of the six continental football confederations that, if re-elected, he would not pursue further expansion of tournaments. The newspaper links this step to a desire to reduce criticism from regional football unions and win back the trust of wavering officials ahead of the FIFA presidential election in March.

Context: the dispute over commercial rights

The Times notes that the decision followed a bitter dispute over Infantino's plan to sell a 20 percent stake in the tournament's commercial rights to private investors through a vehicle called FIFA Forward Enterprise. Infantino himself had announced the abandonment of that project back in August: in his words, discussion of the initiative had led to a split in world football. The World Cup expansion climbdown was thus the second consecutive retreat from ambitious plans that had met resistance within football's hierarchy. The initiative to increase the number of participants at the 2030 tournament to 64 teams originally came from the South American confederation CONMEBOL, which tied it to the centenary of the first World Cup.