UEFA President Dismisses 2030 World Cup Expansion Proposal as a 'Bad Idea'

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin isn't interested in expanding the 2030 World Cup field to 64 countries despite Uruguayan football official Ignacio Alonso proposing it at last month's FIFA Council meeting.

"This proposal that was made was even more surprising for me than for you," Ceferin told reporters at the UEFA Congress in Belgrade on Thursday. "I think it's a bad idea—it's not a good idea for the World Cup itself and it's not a good idea for our qualifiers as well. So, I am not supporting that idea. I don't know where it came from but it's strange that we didn't know anything before this proposal at the FIFA Council."

The 2030 tournament will be split between Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Morocco, Portugal and Spain, though the South American countries will only be hosting one game each in honor of the centenary of the first World Cup back in 1930, which was hosted by Uruguay. The other 101 contests will be split between Morocco, Portugal and Spain.

Alonso's proposal was made in the effort to hold more games in South America in 2030 in honor of the centenary, with FIFA saying it was "spontaneously raised" and "was acknowledged as FIFA has a duty to analyze any proposal from one of its council members."

Ceferin has opposed other alterations to the World Cup in the past, such as Saudi Arabia's attempt to have the tournament held every two years rather than every four. He has also opposed World Cup expansion, fearing that more qualifying teams would reduce the interest in the qualifying matches, as many of the bigger nations in Europe would be virtually guaranteed a spot a the World Cup.