Queiroz Slams 48-Team World Cup as 'Vulgar, Ordinary'
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- Carlos Queiroz, Ghana's manager, criticized the 48-team World Cup expansion as risking a 'vulgar, ordinary competition,' speaking after his side's 2-1 defeat to Croatia that still saw them advance as one of eight best third-placed teams
- Queiroz argued that rarity creates value, saying he had 'never seen in my life common things, ordinary things that come with huge value' and that the World Cup's prestige comes from it being rare to qualify
- Queiroz accused FIFA of financial motivations, stating 'Today, money talks' and describing the situation as 'not football but moneyball,' warning that 'when money starts to talk, the decisions inside the pitch start to change'
- Queiroz said World Cup qualifiers across Europe, Africa, and South America have lost significance because 'everybody's qualified,' raising the names of teams that failed to qualify for the expanded tournament as evidence
- Ghana would have been eliminated for finishing third in their group under the previous format — the very expansion Queiroz criticized is what carried his own team into the round of 32 against Colombia on July 4
- Seven nations are making their knockout stage debuts under the new 32-team format: South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Cape Verde, Congo DR, and co-hosts Canada
- Cape Verde, with a population of 525,000 — smaller than all 50 U.S. states — finished second in their group above Saudi Arabia and two-time World Cup winners Uruguay
Why it matters: Queiroz's critique cuts to the central tension in FIFA's expansion strategy: the same format that let Ghana — and seven debut nations including Cape Verde (population 525,000) — reach the knockout stage is what he argues devalues the tournament. By calling it 'moneyball,' he puts a name to a concern shared privately by many insiders — that commercial incentives are reshaping competition structure at the cost of competitive meaning.
