Nigeria have missed two consecutive World Cups and are staring down a long rebuilding road under Eric Chelle, but a proposal currently doing the rounds at the highest levels of world football could hand the Super Eagles an unexpected route back to the game’s biggest stage, Footynaija.com reports.
FIFA’s ambition for the 2030 World Cup, co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, stretches well beyond what has already been announced.
Recent reports indicate that the governing body’s dream is to transform that centenary edition into a 64-team competition, doubling the field from the 32-team format that ran from 1998 to 2022 and adding 16 more slots beyond the expanded 48-team structure that will debut at this summer’s tournament in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The centenary tournament already spans three continents, with Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay hosting opening-round matches to honour the origins of the competition back in Montevideo in 1930. CONMEBOL has been the loudest advocate for expansion, arguing that such a milestone deserves an unprecedented scale.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has expressed support for the proposal, having personally convened a meeting in New York with CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez alongside heads of state from Paraguay and Uruguay to evaluate the idea.
For Africa, and specifically for Nigeria, the numbers are transformative. Under the current 48-team format taking effect in 2026, Africa holds nine direct qualification slots, up from the five the continent held between 1998 and 2022. A jump to 64 teams would push that allocation further still.
Projections suggest Africa could see at least 13 representatives at a 64-team World Cup, four more than at the 2026 edition. In a continent where Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and South Africa are all credible qualifiers, thirteen spots fundamentally changes the pressure around qualifying.
A Super Eagles team that finished third at the last AFCON would be considered a near-certainty rather than a team fighting to survive the final rounds.
