South American soccer head: Expand 2030 World Cup to 64 teams

The world's biggest and most popular sporting event, by a mile, is the World Cup, and there is yet another call to make it even bigger, at least for the 2030 competition

Thursday, the president of Conmebol, the governing body of soccer in South America, became the latest high-ranking official to propose expanding the World Cup from 48 teams to 64

Alejandro Dominguez believes the expansion would be a unique way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the event

It would also be a one-time change. at least for now. The 2030 World Cup is already scheduled to spread out over the largest geographic

area in tournament history, with six countries on three continents hosting games. Uruguay

Paraguay, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Uruguay, which hosted the first cup in 1930

was the first nation to suggest a 64-team expansion. The expansion would likely allow

all 10 Conmebol members to make the tournament, including Venezuela, who have never qualified for

a World Cup. In a speech to his members, Dominguez said, this will allow all countries to have the

opportunity to live the world experience and so nobody on the planet is left out of the party A bigger party was the consideration when the World Cup expanded from 32 to 48 teams for the upcoming 2026 event to be held in the U Canada and Mexico

But not everyone is on board. Last week, UEFA President Alexander Seferin was blunt in his assessment

This proposal was maybe even more surprising for me than for you

I think it's a bad idea. I think it's not a good idea for the World Cup itself, and it's not a good idea for our qualifiers as well, as you know

So I'm not supporting that idea. I don't know where it came from

Some of the drawbacks that will be debated by FIFA as they decide whether to expand are the watering down of the competition and of qualifying criteria

and the significant travel and logistical challenges. Having so many more teams means more venues and more infrastructure

As you might guess, the bottom line could be the determining factor

Adding 16 more teams appears to have support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino

who typically sees more competition and more venues as a way to raise money and grow the game

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis