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The 24th World Cup will be the centenary of the competition, which was first played in and won by Uruguay in 1930. Only 13 teams participated in the inaugural tournament and the World Cup is a very different beast now, so taking it back to Uruguay to mark the occasion wasn't a realistic option.
World Cup 2030 shares more of its DNA with 2026 than 1930. It will have 48 qualifiers playing in 12 groups of four, necessitating a round of 32 after the group stage. It will also take place – mostly – across three host nations.
Four years after the first World Cup to be played in three countries, 2030 will be the first played on three continents.
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Where will World Cup 2030 be played?
It's proposed that World Cup 2030 will be primarily hosted by a trio of co-hosts: Spain, Portugal and Morocco. 20 stadiums in 17 cities across those three countries will be World Cup venues – 11 in Spain, six in Morocco and three in Portugal.
Barcelona (Camp Nou and RCDE Stadium), Madrid (Bernabeu and Metropolitano) and Lisbon (Estadio da Luz and Estadio Jose Alvalade) will each have two host stadiums in use at World Cup 2030.
101 of the 104 matches played during World Cup 2030 will happen in those 20 stadiums but the other three will take place in three different nations in South America, meaning 2030 will be the first six-nation World Cup.
Those three designated centenary matches are booked in at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay; Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Estadio Osvaldo Dominguez Dibb in Asuncion, Paraguay.
As a result, we already know the first six qualified teams of the eventual 48. All six co-hosts, even the three that will host just one fixture halfway around the world from the other 101, have been granted automatic qualification.
Why are there six host nations for World Cup 2030?
Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay were included in the bid to mark the centenary of the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930. Argentina, Uruguay's near neighbours, were the losing team in the inaugural World Cup final.
CONMEBOL, the South American confederation that's home to those three nations, had previously proposed a one-off expansion to 64 teams in commemoration of the first tournament.
The three main co-hosts for World Cup 2030 were announced by FIFA in December 2024. At the same time, it was confirmed that Saudi Arabia would host the competition in 2034.
One suggestion is that taking three matches to South America in 2030 ruled CONMEBOL nations out from putting together a competitive bid for 2034.
Under FIFA rules, hosting confederations are rotated. Nations from the previous two host confederations are not permitted to host the next World Cup. Because of the sheer weight of hosts in 2026 and 2030, nations from CONCACAF, UEFA, CAF and CONMEBOL are not eligible to host in 2034.
What do you think about the World Cup being hosted in six different countries in 2030? Let us know below...
