“It’s maybe even more surprising for me than for you. I think it’s a bad idea,” Ceferin said, criticizing the proposal for both the tournament and qualification process.
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UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin criticized FIFA’s proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams, calling it “a bad idea” during a UEFA congress in Belgrade on Thursday. Ceferin’s remarks followed a suggestion by Ignacio Alonso, the head of Uruguay’s football federation, at the March FIFA Council meeting. Ceferin emphasized the negative impact on the tournament and qualification process, saying, “It’s maybe even more surprising for me than for you. I think it’s not a good idea for the World Cup itself and it’s not a good idea for our qualifiers.”
He further expressed his surprise that the proposal was raised without prior consultation. The 2030 World Cup will be hosted across three continents—Portugal, Spain, and Morocco—along with matches in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay to mark the tournament’s centenary. The decision also set the stage for Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup.