Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay have secured automatic qualifying spots for the 2030 World Cup as a result of hosting the tournament’s opening games, FIFA confirmed on Thursday.
FIFA, the global governing body of football, had previously announced that Morocco, Portugal, and Spain would jointly host the 2030 World Cup, with the opening matches set to take place in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay in honor of the tournament’s centenary.
In their initial announcement, FIFA had only confirmed automatic qualification for Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.
However, on Thursday, they confirmed that the three South American nations would also be exempt from the qualifying process.
This development means that, in a tournament that has already expanded from 32 to 48 teams for the 2026 finals, “three of the six places” allocated to the South American zone in 2030 will be filled, according to a FIFA spokesman.
Additionally, a South American team will have the opportunity to qualify through a playoff against a team from another continent.
This guaranteed qualification for the 2030 World Cup is particularly significant for Paraguay, which had failed to qualify for the last three World Cup tournaments.
Originally, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile were all candidates to host the tournament.
However, they eventually relinquished their hosting bid in exchange for the privilege of hosting the first three matches and celebrating the centenary of the World Cup, which was initially held in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, in 1930.
