⚽ FIFA World Cup 2030: Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay ⚽

[LUCKMCFLY]

This is funny because you weren't present for the World Cup team fixture live draw, and the official's statement about separating Spain and Argentina during the draw which caused many sports fans to speculate that it was all part of the official's plans. For you to be make sure I'm not the only one who believes that Spain and Argentina aren't chosen together for a purpose, do some research about the draw and what people are saying about it online.

I'd like the World Cup to change its format a bit, to be a round-robin, a format very similar to the Champions League. I don't know if that's possible, but the idea of ​​not having UEFA teams play against each other doesn't make much sense to me. In the end, they'll always end up eliminating each other. The draws are meant to avoid tough confrontations, but the results are the same in the end.

[EL MOHA]

especially whether the greedy FIFA will increase the number of participants to 64 national teams.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see them actually doing this because let’s be realistic they don’t care anymore about the level competition or what they are actually on about is the amount in revenue to be made, during the Qatar World Cup around $6B was reportedly generated and it was heavily spoke about as a milestone. Now in this World Cup the amount reported to be generated is around $15B, this is more than the expected revenue target of $11B, but I wasn’t surprised seeing it that way with the commercials that they brought in to kill the games.

So if 32 teams can bring in $6B and 48 teams bring in $15B then they might be thinking of generating $30B from the 64 teams proposed, I am not surprised because this current football union is looking more at the money than the actual sport and that’s why at this rate I don’t blame players from actually going after money, because at this rate of competitions it will be really difficult to play for long with sound or good health so make more money while you’re fit.

The most embarrassing thing then is the distribution of this money, the total amount shared to all countries wasn’t totaling to even $1B with winner Spain having around $50 million as reported so that means if put the even club compensations into it it will be just a billion dollars, how much does the host nations even get I doubt they spend half of this money on them.

[Mame89]

Regarding the 64-team format, I also think it's quite ridiculous to implement this format, as a 48-team format is already more than enough, let alone a 64-team format. If the reason is to open up opportunities for more countries to qualify for the World Cup, I think the qualifying rounds are sufficient to filter out the best teams from each confederation. A 64-team format would only make the tournament seem more ridiculous and only increase the over-commercialization of the World Cup.

At first glance it's nice to see more teams participating the tournament, but on practice it just mean more boring amateur matches to watch. Many national teams play much inferiorly than the main soccer leagues of the world. But I guess it must generate further income of money for FIFA, as there will be more fans following the competition closely. It must be a way for them to integrate more fans around world cup and that is why the concept is being discussed, although it's not certain to be implemented yet.

Of course, the increasing number of participating teams is a benefit for FIFA. However, as a spectator this will undoubtedly be disappointing as there will be many boring matches between weaker teams.

https://x.com/FIFAWorldCup/status/2079175737664524659

Judging by the total goals scored in the 2026 World Cup as published by FIFA on X this is quite reasonable. From 1998 to 2022, the World Cup was held with 32 participating countries totaling 64 matches. However, in 2026, the number of participants increased by 16 to 48, and the number of matches increased by 40 to a total of 104. While this goal record may seem good the quality of the competition will decline, especially with the 2030 World Cup expanding to 64 teams, which will undoubtedly lead to many more poor teams qualifying. The more weak teams there are, the more goals will be scored, making it easier for players to set records because the average number of goals per match will also increase significantly because many countries that are actually less competitive but qualify, thus becoming goal barns for other countries.

[Moreno233]

It is a vey long time to 2030 but we are already having discussion about that. Well the key point here is that Spain still have the best short at winning it because they a very active team with many players that are young and will be very experienced by 2030. On the contrary, countries like Argentina will have most of their key players too old and their replacements not that experienced.  The same goes for many other countries like Egypt, Morocco, France and even Portugal. This is why I feel that Spain will retain the title.

[uneng]

The more weak teams there are, the more goals will be scored, making it easier for players to set records because the average number of goals per match will also increase significantly because many countries that are actually less competitive but qualify, thus becoming goal barns for other countries.

It's true. Therefore, we can ask ourselves how reliable the new records really are compared to records from previous decades. Imagine Norway with Haaland or France with Mbappe playing against a country like Samoa on world cup. They can easily boost their numbers as biggest scorers of the all times by scoring 30 goals in a single match.

But what does it really mean after all? Nothing.

I guess such records stopped being a real achievement to become a grind or farm like players do in virtual games for badges...

[abaeze]

especially whether the greedy FIFA will increase the number of participants to 64 national teams.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see them actually doing this because let’s be realistic they don’t care anymore about the level competition or what they are actually on about is the amount in revenue to be made, during the Qatar World Cup around $6B was reportedly generated and it was heavily spoke about as a milestone. Now in this World Cup the amount reported to be generated is around $15B, this is more than the expected revenue target of $11B, but I wasn’t surprised seeing it that way with the commercials that they brought in to kill the games. 

This is why this world cup does not have the same joy and excitement as before. It seems to me that the goal and purpose of the World Cup has been stolen or that powerful people have made it a means of earning money. Football is a passion of people and some may have sold this passion and become senseless, but even if everyone understands everything, they are still going by their emotions without using their conscience. Football teaches people all over the world to unite, but if there is some other initiative behind it, then in the future the common people will understand this social business and the joy of the World Cup will be ruined.

[Saltysugar99]

It is a vey long time to 2030 but we are already having discussion about that. Well the key point here is that Spain still have the best short at winning it because they a very active team with many players that are young and will be very experienced by 2030. On the contrary, countries like Argentina will have most of their key players too old and their replacements not that experienced.  The same goes for many other countries like Egypt, Morocco, France and even Portugal. This is why I feel that Spain will retain the title.

Not only Spain, but France will also become a good enough team by 2030. Then we will definitely see Mbappé. I hope he will be in good enough form. But Messi and Ronaldo may have retired . Because they are old. However, Ronaldo is quite fit compared to Messi, but considering his performance , Messi is still performing much better than Ronaldo. In 2030, Messi will be 44 years old, it is very difficult to deliver good performance as a forwarder continue playing football at this age. So I don't think we will see Messi or Ronaldo in the next World Cup.

[Roseline492]

It is a vey long time to 2030 but we are already having discussion about that. Well the key point here is that Spain still have the best short at winning it because they a very active team with many players that are young and will be very experienced by 2030. On the contrary, countries like Argentina will have most of their key players too old and their replacements not that experienced.  The same goes for many other countries like Egypt, Morocco, France and even Portugal. This is why I feel that Spain will retain the title.

Yes Spain is more likely our winner again because normally the round of 16 Morocco won them in 2022 world Cup should have determined the highest place they could have been on this year and that should be Quarter finals but however they use the spaces of four years to rise and make the best country that year to become so low in the pitch, so actually they also have another four years to get things even more better on the 2030 so I'm not in doubt of there back to back. I agree, Argentina will get worse in 2030 because with four years addition to the age of most of those players they would be too advanced.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

This was the reply I was looking for, because it is too early to start a thread about the world cup that would be played in 2030, I think the discussion around this just concluded world cup hasn't yet ended especially with news coming out that there could have probably been match fixing and manipulation.
Investigations are underway to determine if gambling companies or other body has manipulated and fixed matches, also the world cup is so far that what ever you discuss now may not have meaning when 2030 comes around.

Well I wouldn't have anything much to say about any form of manipulation in the just concluded world cup, but let's just know this that it has gone already, Spain which happened to be the winner has taken the cup home and I expect to see much of agitation over the world cup if Argentina eventually won, so as we may have it that spain win the match, anything about manipulation regarding this world cup as ended with that.

[Cryptoprincess101]

Well I wouldn't have anything much to say about any form of manipulation in the just concluded world cup, but let's just know this that it has gone already, Spain which happened to be the winner has taken the cup home and I expect to see much of agitation over the world cup if Argentina eventually won, so as we may have it that spain win the match, anything about manipulation regarding this world cup as ended with that.

It is a good thing that Spain won the World Cup because if Argentina had won, there would have been a lot of propaganda that FIFA rigged the world cup for Argentina to win it. Now that Spain won it, everyone is now quiet and saying that they deserved to win it. Argentina faced a lot of criticisms in the World Cup and i think their morale must have been weakened because despite that Spain played better in the final, Argentina didn't really put enough effort to win as they did in all their matches before they reached the final. Even if there was to be a manipulation, the grievance should be channeled to FIFA and not any country. The hate on Argentina was much and i understand it was just because of Lionel Messi but let us see what will happen in 2030 World Cup since he won't feature again.

Thanks blue Snow for creating this thread. I wanted to discuss about the possible 64-team format, and the thread for the 2026 edition perhaps was not the right place. So what you guys think? The 48-team format for the 2026 edition was highly successful. FIFA wants to expand the 2030 edition to 64-team format, since it will be the centenary edition. I am not sure whether they will retain that format for 2034. BTW, there is no confirmation yet from Gianni Infantino or any of the other top FIFA officials. Only Alejandro Dominguez of CONMEBOL has confirmed this.

Of course, having 64-teams in the 2030 will be interesting because the expanding of the teams will give some countries who haven't had experience of the World Cup the privilege to be known while they also showcase their football skills. In the just ended 2026 World cup, teams like Cape Verde (Cabo Verde), Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan made their first appearance, and we saw how Cape Verde surprised many people with their performance despite that it was their first appearance. Maybe if it was the regular 32 teams, Cape Verde might not have had the opportunity to qualify but since it was 48 teams, it made it possible for them. This is a World Cup and as such it is supposed to comprise of many countries around the World so i will like FIFA to consider that expansion to 64 teams in the 2030 World Cup. At least the expansion will also make it possible for more Countries to host the world cup thereby generating internal revenue for them too.

[JiiBs]

I have heard that some ubiquitous guy we all know has asked that the next World Cup be held again in the USA. have you heard it too? Is there any real chance that this will happen, or are they just rumors? It sounds pretty incredible to me, but seeing how these things are negotiated lately, I'm expecting anything.

It was indeed rumored that Big T. did say America is a football country and they would be open to hosting the World Cup as soon as possible. We all know that can’t be immediate as, it’s a game that belongs to the world and as much as politics can go, there is no chance that this would be allowed.
Other capable nations would definitely take the lead and host the World Cup in 2030 and not America.
There were a lot of complaints on how this 2026 World Cup was handled, we wouldn’t want to repeat the same experience in no time.

[blomen]

i think this is the earliest thread i’ve seen created here for an event  there are still more than three years until 2030, and i think it will be hard for this thread to stay active until then. after all, the previous world cup just ended.

anyway, my country, turkey, participated in that world cup exactly 24 years later and performed far below expectations. if a thread has been started for 2030, i should say right now that i hope turkey finishes the tournament in a better position. the matches against paraguay and australia were really tough for us.

[Marykeller]

especially whether the greedy FIFA will increase the number of participants to 64 national teams.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see them actually doing this because let’s be realistic they don’t care anymore about the level competition or what they are actually on about is the amount in revenue to be made, during the Qatar World Cup around $6B was reportedly generated and it was heavily spoke about as a milestone. Now in this World Cup the amount reported to be generated is around $15B, this is more than the expected revenue target of $11B, but I wasn’t surprised seeing it that way with the commercials that they brought in to kill the games.

So if 32 teams can bring in $6B and 48 teams bring in $15B then they might be thinking of generating $30B from the 64 teams proposed, I am not surprised because this current football union is looking more at the money than the actual sport and that’s why at this rate I don’t blame players from actually going after money, because at this rate of competitions it will be really difficult to play for long with sound or good health so make more money while you’re fit.

The most embarrassing thing then is the distribution of this money, the total amount shared to all countries wasn’t totaling to even $1B with winner Spain having around $50 million as reported so that means if put the even club compensations into it it will be just a billion dollars, how much does the host nations even get I doubt they spend half of this money on them.

In a nutshell, the World Cup hosted by FIFA is a business for them to generate more money than they have previously generated in the last World Cup.

Therefore, in the next World Cup, there will be an increased number of 64 countries that will be participating, so that the money that will be realized at the end of the World Cup will be more than the previous host World Cup. The other World Cup that follows, means to generate money will be thought of, like increasing match fees to be higher than the previous World Cup match fees

[Ryu_Ar1]

Thanks blue Snow for creating this thread. I wanted to discuss about the possible 64-team format, and the thread for the 2026 edition perhaps was not the right place. So what you guys think? The 48-team format for the 2026 edition was highly successful. FIFA wants to expand the 2030 edition to 64-team format, since it will be the centenary edition. I am not sure whether they will retain that format for 2034. BTW, there is no confirmation yet from Gianni Infantino or any of the other top FIFA officials. Only Alejandro Dominguez of CONMEBOL has confirmed this.

Only this can probably be discussed now because to discuss about the team or whatever it is is still too far now let alone we have just finished at the 2026 World Cup.

Currently the proposal is still not confirmed but the statement from Infantino seems to be a breath of fresh air because the response is quite positive although we still have to wait because in several interviews Infantino said that the proposal will be examined as soon as the 2026 World Cup is officially completed.
Currently only CONMEBOL supports this idea but it is possible that other organizations are starting to consider this.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/13/gianni-infantino-64-teams-expansion-comments-fifa-2030-world-cup

64 teams? The money fifa will receive will be more than world cup 2026 lol.

[danadc]

Thanks blue Snow for creating this thread. I wanted to discuss about the possible 64-team format, and the thread for the 2026 edition perhaps was not the right place. So what you guys think? The 48-team format for the 2026 edition was highly successful. FIFA wants to expand the 2030 edition to 64-team format, since it will be the centenary edition. I am not sure whether they will retain that format for 2034. BTW, there is no confirmation yet from Gianni Infantino or any of the other top FIFA officials. Only Alejandro Dominguez of CONMEBOL has confirmed this.

Only this can probably be discussed now because to discuss about the team or whatever it is is still too far now let alone we have just finished at the 2026 World Cup.

Currently the proposal is still not confirmed but the statement from Infantino seems to be a breath of fresh air because the response is quite positive although we still have to wait because in several interviews Infantino said that the proposal will be examined as soon as the 2026 World Cup is officially completed.
Currently only CONMEBOL supports this idea but it is possible that other organizations are starting to consider this.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/13/gianni-infantino-64-teams-expansion-comments-fifa-2030-world-cup

64 teams? The money fifa will receive will be more than world cup 2026 lol.

I would like that opportunity to happen because that way my country, which has never been to the World Cup, would qualify. It would be very interesting, but they don't have much else to consider. FIFA would make a lot of money, and the World Cup would become much more global. It's a great idea. Who has to think about it here? I imagine no one, because there are more football matches, it's much more complete, it would be even more global. CONMEBOL is the one that benefits the most from this World Cup.

[fredericktaylor]

It is a vey long time to 2030 but we are already having discussion about that. Well the key point here is that Spain still have the best short at winning it because they a very active team with many players that are young and will be very experienced by 2030. On the contrary, countries like Argentina will have most of their key players too old and their replacements not that experienced.  The same goes for many other countries like Egypt, Morocco, France and even Portugal. This is why I feel that Spain will retain the title.

Not only Spain, but France will also become a good enough team by 2030. Then we will definitely see Mbappé. I hope he will be in good enough form. But Messi and Ronaldo may have retired . Because they are old. However, Ronaldo is quite fit compared to Messi, but considering his performance , Messi is still performing much better than Ronaldo. In 2030, Messi will be 44 years old, it is very difficult to deliver good performance as a forwarder continue playing football at this age. So I don't think we will see Messi or Ronaldo in the next World Cup.

We may not see many familiar faces in the 2030 World Cup, there is no official information yet on whether Lionel  Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo will retire, so nothing is clear on this matter. However, I do not know what impact Ronaldo retirement will have on the team, but it is quite clear that Messi's retirement will have a big impact on the team because we saw how dependent the team is on Messi in the 2026 World Cup, so Messi contribution to moving the team forward was great.

[Porfirii]

I have heard that some ubiquitous guy we all know has asked that the next World Cup be held again in the USA. have you heard it too? Is there any real chance that this will happen, or are they just rumors? It sounds pretty incredible to me, but seeing how these things are negotiated lately, I'm expecting anything.

It was indeed rumored that Big T. did say America is a football country and they would be open to hosting the World Cup as soon as possible. We all know that can’t be immediate as, it’s a game that belongs to the world and as much as politics can go, there is no chance that this would be allowed.
Other capable nations would definitely take the lead and host the World Cup in 2030 and not America.
There were a lot of complaints on how this 2026 World Cup was handled, we wouldn’t want to repeat the same experience in no time.

I hope you are right, and I hope that it will be held, among others, in Spain as planned. In addition, as winners it is the fairest thing, in fact this is done in other competitions, such as Eurovision, in which the winning country becomes the host the following year.

Let's see what it all ends up being and let them just be rumours. In that sense, as you said, we wouldn’t want to repeat the same experience in no time.

[Myleschetty]

This is funny because you weren't present for the World Cup team fixture live draw, and the official's statement about separating Spain and Argentina during the draw which caused many sports fans to speculate that it was all part of the official's plans. For you to be make sure I'm not the only one who believes that Spain and Argentina aren't chosen together for a purpose, do some research about the draw and what people are saying about it online.

I'd like the World Cup to change its format a bit, to be a round-robin, a format very similar to the Champions League. I don't know if that's possible, but the idea of ​​not having UEFA teams play against each other doesn't make much sense to me. In the end, they'll always end up eliminating each other. The draws are meant to avoid tough confrontations, but the results are the same in the end.

If there are a lot of petitions against the World Cup team selection model, they might decide to change the policy.
Many sports fans are dissatisfied with the way this year's World Cup was officiated and how the fixtures were conducted, so I hope they adopt a format similar to what was used for the team matches in the Champions League, as you suggest.

[nelson4lov]

The World Cup has barely ended and here we are discussing the next one again. There's a long way to go until then, with qualifiers, friendlies, the building of new teams, and a new generation of players for some national teams. Anything can happen. Will Italy manage to qualify for a World Cup again?

Italy qualifying is a question that would be answered in 3.5 years lol. I think this thread will likely be just speculations and for sharing events that are relevant to the world cup in the next 3 years. The thread will likely go through several weeks where there would be little to no replies unless there is anything significant to talk about.


 I'm personally here for the information because I didn't know Morocco will be one of the major host of the 2030 world cup. That's really good to see because by the time of the 2030 world cup, it would've been 20 years since the world cup was last hosted in an African country and it's nice to see.

[Asiska02]

~

Is FIFA still proposing for the 64 teams in the coming 2030 World Cup? I’d already assume that 48 teams has already been finalised and they may consider increasing it to 64 teams in the 2034 World Cup. We all know that this increment of the number of teams is just for them to make more money. They’re more concerned about the revenue they generate now than the spirit of sportsmanship that’s built during this competitions.

I'm personally here for the information because I didn't know Morocco will be one of the major host of the 2030 world cup. That's really good to see because by the time of the 2030 world cup, it would've been 20 years since the world cup was last hosted in an African country and it's nice to see.

I didn’t know Morocco is also a co-host in the next World Cup, that’s very impressive and I applaud that they’re been considered also. But are these countries close proximity to each other that’s they’ve all being approved? I remember the recently concluded World Cup has all countries close to each other which makes it easier for players to move within this locations.