High-Stakes Pitch in NYC: Conmebol’s 64-Team Plan Fails to Win Over FIFA

A high-stakes pitch by South American football chiefs for a 64-team World Cup has failed to win over FIFA, despite a direct appeal to President Gianni Infantino in New York City. The ambitious plan for the 2030 centenary tournament is facing insurmountable opposition from within the governing body, which is wary of sacrificing quality for quantity.
The first formal discussions on the matter took place at FIFA’s Trump Tower offices, where Infantino met with leaders from the Argentinian, Uruguayan, and Paraguayan federations. The core of their argument was that a 64-team event would be a historic celebration and would make the tournament more inclusive. For their 10-member confederation, Conmebol, it would open the door for all of them to qualify.
Despite the compelling case from the South American delegation, the proposal is considered unviable behind the scenes at FIFA. Sources have confirmed a strong and widespread resistance to the idea within the FIFA Council. The main fear is that the tournament would become bloated, leading to a drop in the standard of play and potentially damaging its commercial appeal.
Key figures in global football have already voiced their strong objections. UEFA’s Aleksander Ceferin described it as a “bad idea,” a sentiment echoed by Concacaf’s Victor Montagliani. As FIFA vice-presidents, their collective opposition forms a powerful bloc that makes the proposal’s approval highly unlikely.
With the 48-team format set to debut in 2026, the global football community appears to have settled on a limit for expansion, at least for now. The 64-team idea, while ambitious, seems to have been shelved before it could even make it onto the official agenda of the FIFA Council.