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.
