Fifa president Gianni Infantino has indicated that officials will consider expanding the men's World Cup from 48 to 64 teams before the 2030 tournament, telling the Swiss outlet Bluewin that such a move "could make sense" and would be examined and discussed by the relevant committees after the current event. He framed the potential expansion as a way of making the competition genuinely global, arguing that giving smaller nations a chance to qualify gives them an incentive to keep improving.

The World Cup featured 32 teams from 1998 to 2022, with the 2026 edition being the first to use a 48-team format across a 104-match schedule, of which only the semi-finals, third-place playoff and final remain. Infantino hailed the enlarged tournament as a "huge success", noting that nine of the 10 African teams reached the knockout stage compared with only five African participants qualifying at the last World Cup. The 2030 tournament is already set to be spread across multiple continents, with opening matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay and the remaining games in Morocco, Portugal and Spain; a 64-team field could allow each South American host to stage a full four-team group rather than a single match.