What would a World Cup look like without European teams?

Uefa has declared that it will stage a boycott of the World Cup if Gianni Infantino’s plans to privatise Fifa competitions are voted through.

“No Uefa national teams will participate in any Fifa competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that Fifa will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership,” a Uefa statement confirmed following Thursday’s emergency meeting.

Six of the eight quarter-finalists at this summer’s World Cup were European, as well as three of the four semi-finalists. Since 1966, five of the seven winners of the World Cup have been European: England, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, with Argentina and Brazil the others.

This summer, 16 of the 48 participating teams at the World Cup also came from Europe. It means that should the boycott come to pass ahead of the 2030 World Cup, which is also due to be co-hosted by Spain and Morocco, the line-up for the tournament will look drastically different.

Uefa carries significant leverage as a World Cup without major nations such as champions Spain, France, England and Germany would compromise Infantino’s designs on extracting as much revenue from the global showpiece as possible. Infantino has sold his proposals on delivering more money to Fifa’s 211 members.

It would also harm next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil, with Spain the reigning winners and European champions England also bringing considerable commercial interest in the tournament. England, runners-up at the 2023 World Cup, face two-legged qualification play-offs in October, as do Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What would a World Cup look like without European teams?

Would Fifa press on with a 48-team World Cup without European teams? Let’s not forget that Infantino suggested that Fifa would look at expanding the World Cup to 64 teams in 2030. We also don’t know yet whether Uefa’s boycott would be replicated by other federations, such as Asia and North America.

But a 48-team World Cup, ridiculously staged in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Morocco, and comprised by removing European teams from this summer’s tournament and replacing them directing with the next-best teams from the Fifa rankings, could look something like this:

World Cup 2030 group stages

Group A: Argentina, Ecuador, Jordan, Mali

Group B: Uruguay, Australia, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso

Group C: Paraguay, Panama, Ghana, Honduras

Group D: Morocco, Egypt, Curacao, United Arab Emirates

Group E: South Korea, South Africa, Peru, Uganda

Group F: Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Bolivia

Group G: Colombia, Tunisia, Nigeria, Oman

Group H: United States, Ivory Coast, Congo DR, Guinea

Group I: Japan, Uzbekistan, Cameroon, Syria

Group J: Senegal, Qatar, Venezuela, Gabon

Group K: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Angola