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| AFP Yonhap News |
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| EPAYonhap News |
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Aleksander Cheperin, president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), criticized FIFA's expansion of World Cup participants.
After the UEFA General Assembly held in Belgrade, Serbia on the 3rd (Korea time), President Cheperin said in a press conference, "(FIFA made such a decision) about expanding the number of World Cup participants to 64." an absurd idea." FIFA President Gianni Infantino also attended the general meeting and gave a speech.
FIFA is considering expanding the number of participating countries in the 2030 World Cup to up to 64. While expanding the number of participating countries from 32 to 48 from the 2026 North-China U.S. competition, 16 countries will be added to the 2030 competition, which will be co-hosted by three Spain-Portugal-Morocco countries. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the World Cup, the tournament will be held in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay, where the first tournament was held, and will be the first three-continent-six-nation tournament in history.
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| AFP Yonhap News |
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FIFA cites 'expanding the soccer industry' as the background of the increase in the number of World Cup participants. The logic is that if more countries join and compete in the World Cup, they will be able to earn more profits such as profits from entering the game and profits from TV broadcasting rights.
However, it has been widely believed that FIFA's move is aimed at China. China, which has a population of 1.4 billion, has a high soccer fever, but the 2002 Korea-Japan tournament is the first and last time it has made it to the World Cup finals. The government-led so-called `football rolling' aimed to improve the constitution, but even this failed virtually as the real estate bubble burst. The key reason FIFA insists on expanding the World Cup is to maximize commercial profits by attracting China, which has a huge market, to the World Cup.
UEFA has maintained its opposition to FIFA's move. Due to the nature of the European league, which is mostly conducted on a spring season, the logic was that the World Cup, which takes place for a month immediately after the end of the season, increases player fatigue and ultimately violates club interests. He also added that the expansion of participating countries would reduce the overall quality of the World Cup.
In fact, if the World Cup qualification is expanded to 64 countries, controversy over the equity of each continent is expected to arise. Unlike Europe, Asia and Africa, where more than 50 countries participate in regional qualifiers to qualify for the finals, South America currently has six out of 10 countries to qualify for the finals. If the number of participating countries increases further, virtually all South American countries may play in the finals. Chairman Cheperin pointed out that `If 64 countries participate in the World Cup, it would not be good to watch the preliminary as well as the finals.'
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| APYonhap News |
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
