SIX TEAMS HAVE ALREADY QUALIFIED FOR THE 2030 WORLD CUP DUE TO UNIQUE FIFA RULE

The winners of the World Cup will not qualify automatically for the next tournament

Spain absolutely battering Argentina in the World Cup final isn’t the reason why they will automatically qualify for the next tournament in 2030.

Six host nation countries have already secured their places in the next World Cup.

The tournament's three main co-hosts, Spain, Portugal and Morocco, as well as Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will automatically qualify for the next edition in four years time.

FIFA’s 2030 competition will be held from Saturday, 8 June to Sunday, 21 July, with the opening three matches taking place in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.

These South American countries have been chosen to play first to commemorate 100 years of the World Cup, which was hosted and won by Uruguay in 1930.

Where will the opening 2030 World Cup game be played?

Spain were the best team in the tournament by a mile (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The opening game will be held at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which boasts a capacity of 100,000.

Estadio Osvaldo Dominguez Dibb, a brand new venue in Paraguay, and the Montevideo in Uruguay will also host opening matches.

After those three games, the World Cup will shift to the Northern Hemisphere in 18 stadiums across Spain, Morocco and Portugal.

Ugly scenes at full-time (Marvin Ibo Guengoer - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)

It comes after FIFA boss Gianni Infantino wants to controversially expand the World Cup to a 64-team tournament in 2030 following the success of the expanded 48-team competition this year.

"These are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup," Infantino told Blue Sport.

"When organising a World Cup, it's important to organise it for the whole world - not just Europe and South America, but effectively the entire world. Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup.

"You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high, and it's getting higher and higher, all over the world. If you don't give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they'll lack the incentive to keep improving."

No Messi or Ronaldo

The end of an era (Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)

Sadly, the squads of host nations Argentina and Portugal are unlikely to include the two greatest players of all time in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

After Spain’s convincing 1-0 final, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni was full of praise for Messi: “He is 39 years old, it is unbelievable. It was always crystal clear to me that he would play until he chose to stop and that everyone would support him.

“I hope everyone is proud of him, because he is the best football player ever to set foot on a pitch.”

Both Messi and Ronaldo are yet to comment officially on their international futures.

On the result, Scaloni added: “I feel sadness but knowing that we left everything out there.

“I have a lot of things to say about how we got here, but it’s not worth it.

“I want to thank these guys eternally for giving us another World Cup final and for competing until the end. They were better, that’s the truth.

“But I’ll hold on to an enormous memory of what they have done, of what it’s worth to get this far. We have to give it huge validity because it takes a lot to get here.”

Featured Image Credit: Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images

- Anish Vij