World Cup federations rebuke Aleksander Ceferin over expanded tournament remarks

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Thirteen football associations competing at the World Cup issued a joint response on Sunday to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, after he was reported as saying the enlarged tournament would produce many "completely uninteresting" games.

The group included first-time World Cup participants Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan. In their statement, the associations said they "respectfully but firmly reject" remarks attributed to Ceferin by the Slovenian newspaper Delo.

"For our countries, there is no such thing as an unimportant World Cup match," the statement said. It added that describing such fixtures as less significant was "deeply disappointing" and overlooked the work, sacrifice and ambition of players, coaches, clubs, football administrators and fans worldwide.

Ceferin reportedly made the comments before the tournament while discussing FIFA's move to increase the World Cup field to 48 teams this year, compared with 32 teams at the 2022 edition. He was quoted by Delo as saying: "We have a lot of matches that are completely uninteresting."

Another Slovenian publication, however, also reported Ceferin as noting the broader opportunity created by the change. "On the other hand even small countries can participate and feel the pulse of the World Cup, which is a big thing," he was quoted as saying.

The 13 associations said every country that qualified for the World Cup was entitled to 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," the statement said.

"We therefore reject the UEFA President's comments," the statement added.

The other federations attached to the joint statement were the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and South Africa.

AFP sought a response from UEFA. A spokesperson did not directly deny that Ceferin had made the reported comments, instead pointing to an interview given by the European football chief last week in which he did not address the World Cup expansion.