World Cup expansion proposal to 64 teams a ‘bad idea' – UEFA's Aleksander Ceferin

New York Times

03-04-2025

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has dismissed a proposal to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams as a 'bad idea', saying it would damage both the tournament itself and Europe's qualifying competition.
The topic of World Cup expansion has been back on the agenda ever since Uruguayan football official Ignacio Alonso surprisingly proposed it at a FIFA Council meeting last month.
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Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay are currently scheduled to host one match each at the start of the 2030 tournament, with the remaining 101 games in the 48-team tournament split between Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
The three games in South America are intended to mark the centenary of the first World Cup, which was co-hosted by Argentina and Uruguay in 1930, with Paraguay also getting a match as it is the home of the South American confederation Conmebol.
Alonso, however, was speaking for many in South America who believe the continent should be getting at least as many matches as the other 2030 hosts, which he thinks is best done by increasing the number of teams for one tournament only.
In a statement released after his suggestion was first reported by The New York Times, world football's governing body FIFA said Alonso's proposal was 'spontaneously raised' during the 'miscellaneous' section of the meeting.
It added that the idea 'was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its council members'.
When asked for his opinion during a media conference at the UEFA Congress in Belgrade on Thursday, Ceferin made it clear he does not believe this analysis should take very long.
'This proposal that was made was even more surprising for me than for you,' he said.
'I think it's a bad idea – it's not a good idea for the World Cup itself and it's not a good idea for our qualifiers as well.
'So, I am not supporting that idea. I don't know where it came from but it's strange that we didn't know anything before this proposal at the FIFA Council.'
This is not the first time that Ceferin and UEFA have found themselves in opposition to suggestions for the World Cup from other parts of the planet, ideas that FIFA itself would appear to endorse.
An earlier spontaneous suggestion from the Saudi Arabian federation to hold World Cups every two years, instead of four, was defeated by UEFA-led opposition but FIFA president Gianni Infantino was able to force through his idea to expand the tournament from 32 teams to 48.
That expansion means seven of Conmebol's 10 members can now qualify for the tournament, removing nearly all of the jeopardy from its qualifying tournament, and Ceferin is worried that any further increase in the World Cup's size would do the same to Europe.
Some would argue it has already happened, with 16 slots available at a 48-team World Cup for UEFA's 55 members, but if Europe's allocation was to rise to 20 teams, or perhaps more, qualification would become a formality for the larger nations, greatly reducing the value of qualifiers to broadcasters, sponsors and fans.
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FIFA's desire to host bigger events, with more teams and matches, is not limited to international football, as this summer will see the first edition of the revamped Club World Cup, a 32-team competition that is being hosted by the U.S..
Ceferin did not like that idea, either, but told reporters in the Serbian capital there is nothing he can do about it now and he does not think it is a threat to UEFA's hugely successful Champions League.
'The Club World Cup is happening and that's it,' he said.
'The clubs from Europe wanted it and I don't see this as competition to our competition. It will be more matches for some of the players, but maybe that's more of a question for my dear colleague Gianni Infantino.'
(Top image of Aleksander Ceferin: FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)