The 24th planetary championship will take place in as many as six countries after four years: Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will host the majority of them, and to mark the centenary of the World Cup, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay will open the tournament, each hosting one match.
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It seems that the centenary tournament will feature even more national teams than this year’s World Cup, which saw a record number of 48 teams compete.
“In 2030, the World Cup will come to Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. This will be a great opportunity to celebrate the centenary of the World Football Championship with a 64-team tournament,” wrote the CONMEBOL president from Paraguay on social network X.
FIFA, the governing body of world football, has not yet officially announced how many teams will play in the 2030 World Cup, although during the recently concluded tournament, FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed that his organization would discuss the possibility of expanding the planetary championship to 64 teams.
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“When you organize a World Cup, you have to organize it for the whole world. Not just for Europe and South America, but for everyone. Every team must dream of the opportunity to participate in the World Cup,” said G. Infantino. “We see that the quality of teams is very high and it is constantly increasing worldwide. If we don’t give smaller countries a chance to perform, they will lose motivation to continue to improve.”
Until 2022, 32 national teams played in the World Cups – this number of teams first competed in 1998. Before that, 24 teams played in the World Cups.
104 matches were played in this year’s planetary championship. If the tournament is expanded to 64 teams, the number of matches will increase to 128.
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