At their forefront Morocco.. 6 national teams have officially qualified for the 2030 World Cup

Six national teams from three different continents have booked their places at the 2030 World Cup finals four years early, rewarded for their role in staging matches at a landmark edition that marks a full century since the first ever football World Cup.

Spain, Morocco and Portugal, the tournament's three host nations, are through to the finals without kicking a ball in continental qualifying. Their joint bid won the right to organise the biggest event in world football, and tradition hands host nations automatic entry.

Three South American sides join that European and African trio in the finals: Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Their joint bid fell short of landing the full tournament, but FIFA took an exceptional decision to grant each nation one opening match. The staging honours a hundred years since the first World Cup, held in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo in 1930.

FIFA framed the move as a tribute to South America, the continent where the World Cup was born a century ago. Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will each host a celebratory opening fixture on home soil before the action shifts entirely to Europe and Africa for the rest of the matches.

Those six teams are now the first names officially confirmed for 2030. The final format and the number of participants are still being thrashed out inside FIFA, with serious proposals circulating about an unprecedented expansion to 64 teams rather than 48.