Best Chance for Harambee Stars? FIFA Boss Hints at 64-Team 2030 World Cup

Kenya have never been at the FIFA World Cup but their path to the global tournament could be smoothened further ahead of the 2030 tournament.

FIFA already expanded the World Cup to a 48-team tournament for the ongoing 2026 edition in the United States, Canada and Mexico and president Gianni Infantino feels it has been a resounding success.

Now, a conversation has started over the possibility of increasing participating teams to 64 from the 2030 edition which will be held in Morocco, Spain and Portugal with South American nations Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay hosting the opening matches to celebrate the tournament's centenary.

The 64-team tournament is being pushed by South American leaders who feel it will be long before the region hosts the tournament again and Infantino is buying into the idea.

“It [a 64-team tournament] is definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,” Infantino told Swiss outlet Bluewin.

“Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup. You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high - and it’s getting higher and higher, all over the world,” Infantino further stated, pointing to the impressive performance of new teams at the 2026 tournament as enough proof that an expanded World Cup is necessary.

“If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving,” said the FIFA boss.

Kenya is one of the smaller footballing countries Infantino is talking about and after decades of failing to qualify, a 64-team tournament could give them the best possible opportunity.

Harambee Stars missed a chance to secure a ticket to the expanded 48-team World Cup after finishing fourth in a group that was won by Ivory Coast with Gabon, the Gambia in second and third positions, while Burundi were fifth and Seychelles last.

The 2026 World Cup had nine guaranteed slots for African teams with an extra ticket via the inter-continental playoff which was won by DR Congo to make it a record 10 teams from the continent.

Expanding the World Cup to 64 teams would further increase Africa’s allocation which would make it much easier to qualify and Kenya might be among those hoping that the proposal comes to light.