Blame FIFA, not the USA, as $14bn 64-team World Cup angers football purists in losing battle

The old game is gone and it is not coming back.

That’s been the case for decades and the overwhelming success of the biggest World Cup in history will only embolden Gianni Infantino in his global football push.

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With the USA (and Canada and Mexico) pulling off a 104-match tournament that featured 48 teams bouncing across three countries, FIFA could fast track a push for further World Cup expansion in time for the next tourney in 2030.

It was initially expected that Infantino and Co. would at least hold off until a 2038 World Cup that is still waiting for a host country.

“In 2030, the World Cup comes to Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, a great opportunity for football, to celebrate the World Cup Centenary with a 64-team tournament,” CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez posted on social media.

“We are working to ensure that the 2030 World Cup is held with 64 national teams in homage to the Centenary of the World Cup. International football grows when it opens up to the world.

“The expansion to 48 teams demonstrated that greater participation generates more opportunities, boosts the development of football, and turns the World Cup into a true global celebration. The Centenary offers us a historic opportunity to Dream Big. May the World Cup be the greatest celebration that football has ever known.”

Cape Verde provided athletic inspiration across the globe this summer, highlighting the positives of expanding the playing field.

But some Group Stage matches lacked intensity as the 2026 World Cup progressed, while the performances of Panama, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, New Zealand and Curacao were reminders that bigger isn’t always better for the beautiful game. 

“This (64-team) proposal was maybe even more surprising for me than you,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said in April 2025. “I think it is a bad idea.”

Yet even with UEFA increasingly at odds with FIFA, a 64-team tourney feels like a question of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’

Infantino saturated the World Cup with America in 2026, topped off with a Super Bowl-like halftime show and ‘hydration breaks’ that raked in TV advertising cash, and were similar to the quarter system used by the NFL and NBA.

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“It was like everything American got put into the World Cup, when some of that wasn’t needed,” Gabby Agbonlahor exclusively said Tuesday on talkSPORT Breakfast.

But money talks louder than ever in global football, and Infantino recently stated that FIFA could top $15 billion in revenue across the 2023-2026 World Cup cycle.

When you have Ted Lasso, BTS, Madonna, Shakira and Justin Bieber willingly on your side — even if the halftime show was junk — FIFA’s financial steamroller is harder than ever to stop.

“Spectacular success,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire exclusively told talkSPORT Breakfast, while discussing the 2026 World Cup.

“In 2022 in Qatar, around about $8 billion (in revenue). It’s estimated that this World Cup — with the increase in the number of matches, with the increase in the size of the average capacity of the stadium, and, of course, the pricing — you put those three things together and we’re talking $14 billion.

“The winners only got $40 million. So all of that money is effectively recycled back to FIFA.”

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Infantino can also bat down overexpansion criticism with overwhelming numbers.

For all of the concerns that shadowed the 2026 World Cup before the first match was played, FIFA answered the negativity by setting an all-time attendance record as 6,810,966 fans packed stadiums in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

“The American dream, Mr. President, came to reality,” said Infantino, while standing next to Trump. “We united the world.”

The next big step is a 64-team World Cup that improves the math for the knockout rounds and shines a spotlight on more Cape Verdes.

“This is certainly an issue that will be looked at and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” Infantino told Blue Sport.

“When you organize a World Cup, it’s important that you organize it for the whole world. It’s not just Europe and South America, but the entire world, effectively. Every nation should be able to dream of taking part in the World Cup.”

With a potential revenue intake of $15 billion staring FIFA in the face and Saudi Arabia already on the World Cup calendar in 2034, it will take a unified pushback to prevent a 64-team expansion that suddenly feels imminent.

Infantino understands what’s obvious after the triumph of 2026.

Football won’t get smaller, especially on a global scale.

It will only keep growing, no matter how badly the old-school purists long for the faded days that no longer exist.