By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – The thorny issue of how FIFA plans to regionally distribute slots when the World Cup finals are expanded to 48 teams in 2026 took another twist today when UEFA demanded that European teams be kept apart early on.
Under the expansion proposal of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, approved by the FIFA Council, 16 groups of three will almost certainly contest the first round proper but FIFA is way off deciding how the cake will be sliced up as each confederation battles to get a deal acceptable to its members.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has already gone on record as saying Europe will accept no fewer than 16 places but has now gone even further in order to give European sides the best chance of advancing en masse.
“We can push and be outvoted but expansion was decided by the Fifa council and we can’t do anything about it,” Ceferin told a press conference. “(But) as well as at least 16 slots, another condition (should be) that each European team is in a different group.”
“If we are that good, all 16 teams can qualify that way.”
Ceferin was also asked whether he expected other countries to lobby to stage the 2024 European finals, with the deadline approaching for initial declarations of interest. So far only Germany has come forward.
“I hope somebody else will come if only to have more bidders,” he replied.
Meanwhile, UEFA have announced that 13 candidates have applied for the eight executive committee seats that will become available at the UEFA congress in Helsinki in May for a four-year term up to 2021.
David Gill (England), Marios Lefkaritis (Cyprus) and Michael van Praag, the Dutch FA chief who lost out to Ceferin in the presidential election, are all up for re-election. The new faces are Zbigniew Boniek (Poland), Kairat Boranbayev (Kazakhstan), John Delaney (Republic of Ireland), Armand Duka (Albania), Reinhard Grindel (Germany), Elkhan Mammadov (Azerbaijan), Karl-Erik Nilsson (Sweden), Michele Uva (Italy), Kieran O’Connor (Wales) and Servet Yardımcı (Turkey).
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1713883252labto1713883252ofdlr1713883252owedi1713883252sni@w1713883252ahsra1713883252w.wer1713883252dna1713883252