Concacaf president joins chorus opposing 2030 World Cup expansion to 64 teams

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The controversial proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams has been criticized by several continental federations, with both the Concacaf and the Asian football confederation presidents who oppose the move.

South American Governing Body Conmebol formally suggested last week, which borrowed momentum to an idea initially proposed at a FIFA council meeting last month by Ignacio Alonso, the president of the Uruguayan Football Association.

Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez officially relied on Thursday at the federation congress, saying the expansion would ensure that no one on the planet was left out of the party. ‘

But the proposal was criticized by several other bodies in world football.

ESPN reported that Victor Montagliani, president of Concacaf – who regulated football in North and Central America and the Caribbean – said: “I do not believe that the expansion of the world championship to 64 teams is the right move for the tournament itself and the broader football ecosystem, from national teams to club competitions.”

“We haven’t even kicked off the new world championships of 48 teams yet, so personally I don’t think the expansion to 64 teams should even be on the table.”

The World Cup in 2026, which will be held across the US, Canada and Mexico, will be the first to be expanded to 48 teams from the existing model of 32. The decision to increase the number of teams in the tournament was taken to a unanimous vote at a FIFA Congress in 2017.

Any further expansion to 64 teams would mean that the 2030 edition would involve 128 games, double the number contested under the format. The 2026 tournament contains 104 games taken out in 16 host cities.

The 2030 edition already has a number of logistical challenges due to the vast nature across three continents. Spain, Portugal and Morocco are hosted, but Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina will all offer opening matches in celebration of the centenary of the tournament, which was first hosted and won by Uruguay.

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian football confederation (AFC).

“If the issue remains open to change, the door will not just be open to expanding the tournament to 64 teams,” he said at the 35th AFC congress.

“But someone might come along and demand to increase the number to 132 teams. Where would we end up? That would become chaos. ‘

UEFA president Alexander Ceferin, who is also a FIFA vise president, was another to criticize the proposal. He said: “It’s not a good idea for the World Cup, nor is it a good idea for our qualifiers.”

He also asked the sudden nature of the original proposal: “I don’t know where it came from, but it’s strange that we didn’t know anything before this proposal at the Fifa Council.”

Fifa has not yet commented on the merits of the idea, but said after the original proposal that it was obliged to consider it. The proposal could be discussed at the coming 75th Congress of the FIFA, which will be held on May 15 in Asuncion, Paraguay.

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