3JUN

CONMEBOL renews its push for 64 teams in 2030

1 min read

08:50UTC

Alejandro Domínguez restated South America's case for a 64-team 2030 tournament with the 48-team version barely 48 hours finished. FIFA has confirmed nothing.

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Key takeaway

Domínguez is pressing for 64 teams in 2030 before the 48-team tournament has been audited.

Alejandro Domínguez, president of CONMEBOL (the South American Football Confederation), publicly restated the case for a 64-team World Cup in 2030 ¹. The proposal has a specific hook: 2030 marks a century since the first tournament, held in Uruguay in 1930, and CONMEBOL's argument leans on the centenary as grounds for a one-off enlargement.

Gianni Infantino got there first, declaring the 48-team format a success and signalling appetite for 64 , and Domínguez is now pressing that case with the tournament barely finished, while the first 48-team tournament's own record remains unsettled. FIFA (world football's governing body) has confirmed nothing on the proposal, and any decision would run through its Council rather than through a confederation president's public remarks.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation, wants the 2030 World Cup to have 64 teams instead of the current 48. FIFA has not agreed to this or ruled it out. This year's tournament was the first with 48 teams, up from 32, so this is a debate about whether to expand again just one cycle later.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

CONMEBOL's push for 64 teams in 2030 is tied to South America's own hosting stake: the 2030 World Cup opens with three centenary matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay before the tournament shifts to Spain, Portugal and Morocco, giving CONMEBOL members a direct commercial interest in a larger format regardless of the competitive case.

Infantino calling the 48-team format "100 percent" right while saying FIFA's committees will still examine 64 teams for 2030 is not a contradiction in FIFA's governance structure: the president can defend a format publicly while committees run a separate technical review, since any 2030 format change requires Council approval FIFA has not yet scheduled.

Escalation

Open: FIFA has not confirmed or rejected the 64-team proposal, and no Council vote has been scheduled.

What could happen next?

Opportunity
South American federations stand to gain commercially and competitively from a larger 2030 field, since Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay co-host the tournament's opening matches.

Sources:ESPN

Mentions:Alejandro Domínguez →South American Football Confederation →FIFA →Gianni Infantino →Uruguay →World Cup →

First Reported In

Update #45 · A prosecutor for the brawl, an outlet for the goals

ESPN· 21 Jul 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

FIFA calls 48 teams right, eyes 64

Domínguez's public restatement builds on Infantino's earlier openness to a 64-team 2030 format.

Occurred 12 Jul 2026

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This Event

CONMEBOL renews its push for 64 teams in 2030

The expansion argument is being made while the evidence from the first 48-team tournament is still unaudited.

Different Perspectives

Sky Sports

Sky Sports put its own name on the tournament's first goal total, 308 across 104 matches, published 20 July because FIFA's technical report was not ready to. An independent tally from SoccerAnalytics.net reconciled to the same number, but the figure entering wider circulation carries a broadcaster's byline, not FIFA's.

Vancouver and Toronto

Hotel occupancy fell 20.9% in Vancouver and hit roughly CAD 380m in hosting costs for Toronto, even as match-day room rates spiked. Both cities' formal cost-benefit reconciliations are due in spring 2027, and neither has yet had to account publicly for a July that undersold itself.

Spain / Royal Spanish Football Federation

King Felipe VI received Spain's squad at the Palacio de la Zarzuela on 20 July, a ritual that proceeded as scheduled despite the disciplinary file opened the same afternoon. Rodri's Golden Ball closed the individual awards, which went almost entirely to Spain.

Argentine Football Association

The federation faces a fine in its own right, beyond player suspensions, because FIFA's prosecutor is reviewing assistant coach Roberto Ayala alongside Paredes and Molina. Any sanction lands on a coaching staff whose own future with president Claudio Tapia is not discussed until the 21 September window.

FIFA

FIFA appointed a Disciplinary and Ethics Prosecutor on 20 July to build one file spanning Leandro Paredes' red card, Roberto Ayala's alleged strike and Nahuel Molina's, rather than ruling case by case. No hearing date exists yet, and FIFA's own past tariffs range from a CHF 30,000 federation fine in 2014 to Luis Suarez's four-month ban.

FairSquare

FairSquare has referred Gianni Infantino to the International Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission over FIFA's political-neutrality rules, using the IOC's authority as a lever FIFA's own president-appointed Ethics Committee cannot provide against itself. Trump's on-podium presence at the final, with Infantino visibly moving him aside, becomes an exhibit for that complaint rather than an argument for it.