Not a good idea' Ceferin on collision course with Fifa over 64-team World Cup

The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has hit out at a proposal to expand the 2030 men's World Cup to 64 teams, calling the concept a "bad idea" and appearing to criticise Fifa for not advising his organisation of the suggestion in advance.

- Nick Ames

Fifa confirmed last month that it would consider adopting the sprawling new format as a one-off in 2030 to celebrate the tournament's centenary, after the idea was raised at a meeting of its council by the Uruguayan football association president, Ignacio Alonso. The global governing body said the subject had been brought up spontaneously and that it had "a duty to analyse" any proposal. But Ceferin left no doubt it would not have Uefa's backing and was evidently unimpressed by its unexpected emergence.

"This proposal that was made was even more surprising than it was for you," he said after Uefa's annual congress concluded in Belgrade. "I think 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'm 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."