22JUL

FIFA calls 48 teams right, eyes 64

2 min read

12:48UTC

Infantino called the expanded format "100 percent" the right call on 13 July and said FIFA's committees will examine a 64-team tournament for 2030.

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Key takeaway

Infantino defended the 48-team format and sent a 64-team option for 2030 to FIFA's committees.

Gianni Infantino called the 48-team World Cup format "100 percent" the right call on Monday 13 July and said FIFA's committees will examine expanding to 64 teams for 2030 ¹. France, Spain, England and Argentina made up the last four, the same four confederation-heavyweight names the smaller format tended to produce. A record ten African entrants produced no semi-finalist , and neither Norway nor Switzerland, the two outsiders to reach the quarter-finals, went further than that.

The structural objections raised through the tournament remain unanswered in anything FIFA has published. Thirty-two of 48 teams go through, which makes elimination harder than qualification. Where both sides in a final group match can qualify on the same scoreline, the incentive runs toward playing for that result and letting it eliminate a third team.

The calendar carries the other cost. Top European leagues restart roughly a month after the final, and the players who went deepest get the shortest break. A 64-team field would add another round of fixtures to the same window, which is the part of the proposal FIFA's committees will have to price rather than vote on.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the World Cup's new 48-team format, used for the first time this year, was '100 percent' the right decision, and said FIFA will now look at expanding even further, to 64 teams, for the next World Cup in 2030. Critics argue the bigger format has a built-in problem: with two-thirds of teams advancing from the group stage, it is now easier to qualify for the knockout rounds than to get eliminated in the groups, which can make some final group games less competitive. FIFA has not publicly addressed that criticism.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The 32-of-48 advancement structure is the mechanical source of the collusion-incentive critique: with two-thirds of the field progressing, a team can calculate its safest path through a final group match well before kickoff, a dynamic the older 32-team format's stricter cut did not permit to the same degree.

That the eventual last four, France, Spain, England and Argentina, were the most conventional grouping of football powers the draw could have produced undercuts the format's stated promise of broadening genuine title contention even as it delivered record attendance and goal totals.

What could happen next?

Risk
Expanding to 64 teams without addressing the 32-of-48 advancement critique would extend the same dead-rubber incentive structure across a still larger field.

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United States

United States

LeftRight

Consensus view: Infantino's own case for expansion rests on scale: the 48-team format set an all-time World Cup attendance record of 3,605,357 across the group stage alone, beating the previous record set across the entire 1994 tournament in the United States.

Counter-view: Independent analysis from outlets including Al Jazeera and CNN has documented a structural flaw the attendance figures do not address: because 32 of 48 teams advance from the groups, it is mathematically harder to be eliminated in the group stage than to qualify for the knockouts in the first place, which raises the risk of dead-rubber final group games and mutually convenient results.

Key tension: Whether a format judged a success on attendance and goals-per-game has also been judged on the competitive-integrity question its own confederations and independent analysts raised throughout the tournament, since no source found in this reporting shows FIFA's own review addressing the incentive structure directly.

Sources:Associated Press (via PBS NewsHour)·Associated Press (via PBS NewsHour)

Mentions:Gianni Infantino →Norway →Switzerland →Spain →United States →Al Jazeera →Argentina →England →France →World Cup →FIFA →

First Reported In

Update #44 · Spain win with one goal and one conceded

Associated Press (via PBS NewsHour)· 20 Jul 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Africa's last team out as France win

A record ten African entrants producing no semi-finalist is competitive evidence FIFA has not addressed in declaring the 48-team format vindicated.

Occurred 9 Jul 2026

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This Event

FIFA calls 48 teams right, eyes 64

FIFA is moving toward a further expansion without answering the structural objections raised against the format it has just run.

Led to

CONMEBOL renews its push for 64 teams in 2030

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

Occurred 21 Jul 2026

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Different Perspectives

Manchester City

Manchester City holds Golden Ball winner Rodri under contract to summer 2027 while journalists report a divided Real Madrid board weighing an approach, with no source at either club confirming direct talks. Any move stays speculation rather than business until City's asking price is actually tested.

Argentine Football Association

Claudio Tapia has set the Scaloni conversation for the 21 September to 6 October international window rather than force an answer now, the same approach that kept Scaloni through two prior cycles. Otamendi's on-record retirement and Messi's unstated future leave the federation managing a squad transition in public while its own head coach's contract runs only to December.

Barcelona

Barcelona will bank 2,893,533 euros from FIFA's 2026 Club Benefits cycle, down roughly a third from the 4.43 million euros it received after Qatar, despite the tournament reporting record revenue. Under LaLiga's squad-cost limits every euro is accounted for, and the shortfall removes a line the club had counted on after a deep run by its internationals.

FIFA

FIFA restructured its Club Benefits Programme to split $350m across qualifying as well as the finals, the published mechanism it cites when a club's tournament payment falls even as the overall pool grows on record revenue. The reallocation reaches clubs that supply qualifiers but never a finalist, the constituency FIFA needs behind any 2030 expansion vote.

Fox Sports

Fox is calling its Nielsen average of 38,937,000 for Sunday's final the most-watched soccer telecast in US history, a claim built on its own linear number rather than the 66.4 million combined total a ratings site produced from both networks' releases. The distinction matters because advertisers transact against the narrower figure, not the one a headline will carry.

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.