Sport24.az
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has criticized the idea of expanding the World Cup to 64 teams. Sport24.az reports that Čeferin, reacting to reports that FIFA is discussing the possibility of increasing the 2030 World Cup, to be held on the 100th anniversary of the tournament, from 48 to 64 teams, said in an interview with Kicker:
"From the beginning, we have been skeptical of the idea of "the more teams, the better", because as the number of teams increases, the quality decreases. Our main goal is to protect European football, our federations and our competitions.
People say that we supposedly support these expansions... I don't know what to do anymore. Only a magician can explain how to prevent something in a situation where we have only 9 out of 36 votes. Every fight is tiring.
We accept the 48-team format because it does not harm European football. But the idea of 64 teams is nonsense. We are strongly against it. The tournament will be too long, and the European qualifying matches will lose their importance. And most importantly, from the point of view of the quality of football, this is absurd."
