FIFA has taken its first operational step toward a 64-team men’s World Cup. An invitation to outside research agencies asks them to assess what would happen if the field grew from 48 to 64 nations beginning in 2030. Bids are due Aug. 7, and FIFA plans to select the agency on Aug. 14.
Aug. 14 isn’t an expansion vote. According to FIFA’s request for proposals, the selected agency would have four weeks, until Sept. 11, to study competitive balance, qualification, player welfare, the international calendar, operating demands and potential income from tickets, sponsors and media rights. The compressed schedule also places the work beside FIFA’s World Cup investment plan, which proposes a commercial subsidiary with an implied $20 billion valuation and seeks as much as $4.2 billion from outside investors.
No competition change has been approved. FIFA hasn’t assigned additional qualifying places or published a format. The accelerated timetable could allow FIFA’s decision-making bodies to consider the findings later in 2026, but there’s no announced date for a vote.
The idea began as a South American proposal for the centenary edition. Uruguayan football official Ignacio Alonso raised it at a FIFA Council meeting in March 2025, and CONMEBOL backed it the following month. CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez renewed the case after the 2026 final. The new brief is broader than the original one-time proposal because it asks about expansion beginning in 2030, not only a commemorative exception. FIFA hasn’t said a 64-team model would become permanent.
If FIFA kept four-team groups, the cleanest structure would contain 16 groups and a round of 32. That would produce 128 matches, 24 more than the 104 played in 2026. A finalist could still play eight times, but the tournament would need more team bases, training fields, hotel rooms, transportation capacity and broadcast windows. FIFA is considering another change to the 48-team World Cup after only one edition.
The commercial calendar around expansion
The 2030 World Cup’s six-country design gives expansion an immediate hosting rationale. Morocco, Portugal and Spain are scheduled to stage the main tournament. Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will each host one centenary match. A larger field could allow the South American countries to stage full groups instead of isolated fixtures, although FIFA hasn’t proposed a revised allocation. The original host announcement prompted Portugal’s celebration for the 2030 World Cup, but the operating plan may now face another rewrite.
The commercial case is easier to count. More matches create more tickets, hospitality inventory, sponsorship exposure and broadcast rights. FIFA’s brief asks the agency to estimate those gains and determine whether they’d last. The report is due Sept. 11, eight days before the deadline for member associations to state their position on FIFA’s proposed commercial company.
The proximity of the deadlines doesn’t establish a transaction between them. There’s no verified evidence that prospective investors requested 64 teams, that expansion is being offered in exchange for association votes or that investors would control the tournament format. FIFA says authority over sporting decisions would remain inside the governing body.
The institutional objections are already clear. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin called the proposal a “bad idea” in 2025. Concacaf president Victor Montagliani described it as “not a great idea.” The study must now confront the concerns behind those reactions: weaker qualifying competitions, calendar pressure, operating complexity, player welfare and a tournament available to nearly one-third of FIFA’s 211 members.
Aug. 14 may reveal only which agency conducts the research. Sept. 11 is the first deadline likely to produce an evidence-based recommendation. Until the FIFA Council formally changes the format, a 64-team World Cup remains a proposal. It hasn’t reached approval, but the accelerated timetable has given it a defined route toward a decision.
