World Football Federation Rejects UEFA President's Criticism of Expansion to 48 Teams
June 22, 2026 · Global
Thirteen federations of the countries participating in the World Cup rejected Aleksander Ceferin's criticism of the tournament's expansion to 48 teams, stressing the importance of each match and respect for all qualifying countries.
The thirteen federations of the countries competing in this year's World Cup insisted they deserved "respect" and rejected UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin's criticism of the new 48-team format. The statement released on Sunday expressed the federations' "deep disappointment" over Ceferin's comments that the expansion from 32 teams to 48 made the game "completely uninteresting", as reported by Slovenian outlet Delo.
The statement was signed by the federations of Cape Verde, Curacao, Uzbekistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Haiti, "in solidarity" with Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and South Africa.
In the joint statement, they said that "for our countries, no World Cup match is unimportant", and Ceferin's suggestion that their match was less important was "deeply disappointing and fails to recognize the efforts, sacrifices and aspirations of players, coaches, clubs, football leaders and fans around the world".
They also added that "every qualified country deserves respect" and the federations "reject the UEFA President's comments".
"For Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan, qualifying for the FIFA World Cup is a historic achievement and the realization of a dream shared by generations," they said. "For countries like Congo and Haiti, returning to football's biggest stage after so long has a special meaning for the millions of supporters who have waited years, and in some cases, decades for this moment. Behind every qualification is years of hard work and investment. Behind every national team is a community and millions of people who see football as a source of pride, hope and unity.
The statement stressed that football "does not belong to a specific group of countries" and that the World Cup is the world's biggest football competition "because it combines different cultures, different histories and different football journeys".
"We therefore reject the UEFA President's comments and reiterate our belief that the growth of football must continue to create opportunities, inspire new generations and strengthen the truly global nature of our game," concluded the statement. The Athletic has contacted UEFA for comment. Three of the teams that signed the statement will make their World Cup debut (Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan), while DR Congo will appear for the first time since the 1974 qualifiers, when the country was known as Zaire. With 12 groups of four teams each, the 2026 tournament is the biggest World Cup in history. Ceferin has previously publicly criticized proposals to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams. The European Championship, organized by UEFA, has had 24 teams since expanding from 16 in 2024.