The 2026 World Cup is currently at four teams with the semifinals this week. The four teams left are Argentina, England, France and Spain.
One of the big stories about the 2026 World Cup has been the number of teams participating. For the first time ever there are 48 teams, up from 32 teams at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Now there is talk about expanding the tournament even further. According to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, there is discussion of increasing the World Cup from 48 teams to 64 teams according to Rogers Sportsnet on Sunday.
I grew up watching the World Cup when it was a 24 team tournament. In this time, it was very prestigious to qualify for the World Cup. Now the level of prestige to qualify is minimal and you are basically laughed at if you do not qualify. Sometimes less means more. Fewer games amd fewer teams means more compelling matches, but FIFA does not seem to understand that.
By increasing the number of teams to 64, the World Cup could be compared to the National Collegiate Athletic Association March Madness Basketball Tournament in terms of teams participating. You could argue that March Madness is more dramatic because every game has so much more on the line, as it is single elimination.
The 2030 World Cup will be jointly hosted by Portugal, Morocco and Spain, with some centenary matches being played in South America (Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay). This is in honour of the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup won by Uruguay, who beat Argentina 2-1 in the 1930 World Cup Final in Montevideo.
