This is a difficult question to answer.
The notion of a 64-team tournament is almost unprecedented in top-level international sport, so it is difficult to cite any examples.
Next summer’s expanded format is complicated enough, with the top two and best eight third-place finishers from 12 groups of four qualifying for the last 32.
The obvious structure for a 64-team World Cup in 2030 would be for the top two from 16 groups of four to qualify for the last 32. Perhaps a bit tidier than next years?
Should the proposal eventually be accepted, the 2030 edition would include 128 matches – up from the 64-game format played between 1998 and 2022.
Next year’s World Cup will have 104 matches and will take 72 games – eight games more than an entire 32-team World Cup – just to get down to 32 teams.
From the start of the 2026 tournament until the end of the last 16 there will be 96 games across 27 days, with no rest day.
Just one of those days will feature a single match, and just two days will have only two matches. The remaining 24 days will feature three, four or even six matches.
Therefore, the impact of another 16 teams joining the fray is rather mind-boggling.
How would they fit in the extra matches?
Fifa has already stated the 2030 finals will run from 8 June, with the final on 21 July, and the possibility of making the tournament longer would seem unlikely with the footballing calendar already more tightly packed than many would like.
This would mean the need for more games per day in the group stages and thus extra stadiums would have to be considered.
There have been suggestions Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay could host more games during these group stages.
And what would the impact be on qualifying?
For starters, it would be almost inconceivable that the world’s top football nations would not qualify for the World Cup.
While Italy are currently preparing to sit out a third consecutive World Cup, such shock scenarios, which are all part of the drama, are hard to envisage should a 64-team tournament become a reality.
Conmebol could already see a maximum of seven teams qualify for next summer’s event, and they would clearly want more members qualifying for an expanded tournament.
All other continents would also be expected to have more qualifying spots, but the logistics around this are purely guesswork for now.
The mere potential of a 64-team World Cup has raised plenty of questions – as well as eyebrows. Whether it gets off the ground or not remains to be seen, a matter for sporting and political power-brokers to figure out.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.
