FIFA has opened a fast-track consultation on expanding the men’s World Cup to 64 teams from 2030, even as president Gianni Infantino faces fierce resistance to his separate proposal to sell stakes in a new commercial subsidiary.
Documents seen by media show FIFA circulated a research brief titled “Potential expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 64 teams” on Thursday, seeking an independent agency’s assessment of the impact on the tournament and wider football ecosystem. The timeline is tight: agency proposals are due by August 7, with a FIFA decision targeted for August 14 and full analysis by September 11.
That schedule places the expansion review just before Infantino’s September 19 deadline for the 211 member associations to approve his FIFA Forward Enterprise plan. The $20 billion commercial vehicle would handle major competitions, with minority stakes offered to private investors to raise up to $4.2 billion for development funding.
The investment proposal has already been rejected by UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation. UEFA has threatened a boycott of all FIFA competitions unless the plan is abandoned, while Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned on Friday, describing the scheme as “a bad deal for football.”
The 2026 tournament, won by Spain, was the first with 48 teams. A further jump to 64 had previously met private scepticism inside FIFA. The governing body now says it is examining “whether and how expanding the FIFA World Cup from 48 to 64 participating teams, starting with the 2030 edition, would impact on the tournament proposition [and] football ecosystem.”
Critics within the confederations have linked the accelerated expansion process to concerns over transparency and the influence of private capital. UEFA had already flagged bigger and more frequent tournaments as a risk if external investors gained a say in competition formats.
Infantino, who had been widely expected to seek a further term in the March 2027 election with limited opposition, now confronts hardening resistance. The Asian confederation called for an “urgent review” of FIFA’s governance framework, noting this was not the first time major stakeholders faced significant initiatives after the direction appeared already set.
FIFA maintains the expansion study and commercial plan are separate, insisting no one is selling football and that both aim to broaden the game’s reach and funding.
