UEFA does not want the World Cup to expand to 64 teams

President Aleksander Ceferin wants the World Cup to stop at 48 teams.

At a press conference following UEFA’s annual conference in Belgrade, Serbia, Mr. Ceferin affirmed that expanding the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams would bring many negative consequences. “I think it is a bad idea,” the UEFA leader declared.

The idea of increasing the number of teams participating in the 2030 World Cup from 48 to 64 was proposed by a representative of Uruguay at the online meeting of the FIFA Council on March 6. Uruguay believes that to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World Cup, increasing the number of participating teams to 64 could bring many meanings to world football.

However, Mr. Ceferin opposed this idea. “I was more surprised than you about this proposal,” the UEFA president affirmed. “It is strange that we did not know anything about it before it appeared in the FIFA Council. I do not know where it came from. But it is certainly not a good idea.”

Mr Ceferin and opponents of the plan to expand the World Cup to 64 teams argue that this would reduce the quality of the tournament, while increasing the number of matches in the finals to 128. It would also devalue qualifying matches in continental competitions by adding more places.

“This idea is not good for the World Cup itself, nor is it good for the qualifying rounds of European football,” Mr. Ceferin emphasized. The 2030 World Cup is expected to be the most complicated finals ever, when it is held on three continents to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the tournament.

Spain, Portugal and Morocco were the three co-hosts, but they agreed to cede three matches to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (one each) to mark the historic milestone. Uruguay hosted the first tournament in 1930.

After the 2025 National Women's Cup semi-final on the afternoon of April 3, Chelsea Le expressed her gratitude to the Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club before saying goodbye to the team to return to the US.

Source: https://znews.vn/uefa-khong-muon-world-cup-mo-rong-len-64-doi-post1543153.html