Thirteen World Cup nations reject UEFA president's criticism of 48-team format as 'deeply disappointing'

Ceferin's remarks

Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA, reportedly told a conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, that expanding the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams leads to a surplus of uninteresting matches. Slovenian outlet Delo quoted him as saying:

“We have a lot of matches that are completely uninteresting.”

He also acknowledged that the format allows smaller nations to participate and feel the pulse of the World Cup, calling that "a big thing".

Thirteen federations push back

On Sunday, 13 football federations – Cape Verde, Curacao, Uzbekistan, DR Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and South Africa – released a joint statement expressing "profound disappointment". They rejected Ceferin's classification of their matches as less important. One Dutch report named Jordan as an additional drafter, bringing the count to 14, but the published statement itself listed 13 signatories.

"No such thing as an unimportant match"

The federations said that for their countries, every World Cup match carries immense weight:

“For our countries, there is no such thing as an unimportant World Cup match.”

They highlighted the historic nature of qualification for Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan, all making their first appearance, and the long-awaited return for DR Congo (absent since 1974) and Haiti.

“To suggest that these matches are somehow less important is deeply disappointing and fails to recognise the efforts, sacrifices and aspirations of players, coaches, clubs, football leaders and supporters across the world.”

Football's universality stressed

The statement underscored that football does not belong to a select group of nations; its strength comes from its universality:

“Every nation that qualifies deserves respect. Every team has earned its place on merit. Every supporter has the right to dream. Every match carries meaning for millions of people around the world.”

It concluded by reaffirming that the growth of football must continue to create opportunities and strengthen the global nature of the game.

A tournament in progress

The controversy broke as the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, was underway. Curacao made its debut on Sunday against Germany. The 48-team tournament features 104 matches and runs through 19 July, marking the first expansion since the 1998 finals moved from 24 to 32 teams. UEFA had not yet commented on Ceferin's remarks or the joint statement at the time of reporting.