The European Football Association (UEFA) is planning changes to the qualification system for the World Cup and European Championship, and the new format should be introduced in the next six months, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said today.
Last year, the Champions League underwent a major change with the transition to a single table format with 36 teams, which brought greater uncertainty and attractiveness, as both Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City risked elimination in the final, eighth round.
However, Čeferin categorically rejected the possibility of a similar system being applied to national team qualifications at the Football Business Forum in Milan.
“No,” Čeferin said shortly.
When asked when the plans would be announced, he replied: “I would say we will know more in about six months.”
A month ago, speculation emerged that UEFA was considering a “Champions League-style league” for qualifying for the next European Championship, following Ceferin’s hints at a conference in Lisbon.
UEFA is currently considering ways to make the qualifiers more interesting, as interest from fans and broadcasters is declining, especially due to the large differences in quality between the national teams.
The current qualification system for the 2026 World Cup involves groups of four or five teams playing in a round-robin format, but the lack of attractive duels and a large number of one-sided matches have become obvious.
The biggest win this year was Austria-San Marino 10-0, while France defeated Gibraltar 14-0 in the EURO 2024 qualifiers two years earlier.
Ceferin stressed that two options are being considered.
“We don’t know exactly where we’re going yet. Does it make sense to have a 10-0 record? And then again, does it make sense for small and medium-sized teams to keep playing against big teams and never qualify? If we could somehow combine those two approaches, that would be ideal,” said Čeferin.
UEFA has already enabled at least one lower-ranked team to qualify for the European Championship through the Nations League. North Macedonia played in EURO 2020, and Georgia in EURO 2024, where they reached the round of 16, where they were eliminated by eventual champions Spain.
