Federations from Africa, Curaçao, Haiti and Uzbekistan blast UEFA; understand

UEFA "scored a great goal" in this World Cup by confirming Omar Abdulkadir Artan to decide the European Super Cup after the Somali referee was prevented from entering the United States to referee games after denying his visa.

The attitude ended up being left aside, however, after the entity's president, Aleksander Ceferin, made a mistake in a speech and said that some teams' games would be "uninteresting".

Ceferin ended up reducing some World Cup teams by failing the competition with 48 classified. The revolt of the African teams, reinforced by Curaçao, Haiti and Uzbekistan, came in a note of repudiation of the manager's contempt and with a clear message that their games are not "insignificant."

The football federations of Cape Verde, Curaçao, Uzbekistan, Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and South Africa express their deep disappointment following recent statements by UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin regarding the expansion of the FIFA World Cup and the classification of several matches as uninteresting.

Joint note from the federations, released this Sunday (14)

"For our countries, no FIFA World Cup match is insignificant. For our countries, qualifying for the FIFA World Cup represents a historic achievement and the realization of a dream shared by generations", the teams showed pride.

The scolding of the leader went further. "To suggest that some of our matches will be somehow less important is deeply disappointing and amounts to ignoring the efforts, sacrifices and aspirations of players, coaches, clubs, football officials and fans around the world."

The teams took the opportunity to show their pride in being in competition for North American, Canadian and Mexican camps. "Behind every qualification, there are years of work and investment. Behind every national team, there are entire communities and millions of people who value football as a source of pride, hope and unity."

2026 World Cup: who are the Brazilians who will play for other countries

Source: CNN