UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin faces criticism after he is alleged to have said the expanded 48-team FIFA World Cup would produce uninteresting matches. Multiple soccer governing bodies across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean issue a joint statement expressing solidarity with federations that have also been targeted by the reported remarks. The statement names associations including Cape Verde, Congo, Curaçao, Haiti, Jordan and Uzbekistan, and it cites additional federations—Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia—as those standing behind the broader concern. The criticism centers on the claim that including more teams will negatively affect the quality or appeal of matches. The reports describe the controversy as a coordinated response by the regional federations rather than a dispute confined to Europe. The Winnipeg Free Press and Yahoo Sports and Japan Today cover the same allegation and the federations’ collective reaction, though they do not provide additional confirmed detail beyond the wording attributed to Čeferin and the federations’ expressed concerns.