Africa used to get five places at the World Cup. With the field at 48 teams, it has ten. Ghana’s manager thinks that may be the problem.
Carlos Queiroz spoke after the Black Stars lost 2-1 to Croatia to close the group stage on Saturday. Ghana were already sure of a place in the last 32 thanks to other results on Friday. Queiroz used the occasion to say expansion has taken the shine off qualifying.
“I never see in my life common things, ordinary things that become huge value,” he said. “So the number of teams that qualify for World Cup, I am afraid that can turn this competition to a vulgar, an ordinary competition.”
Qualifiers that mean less
Africa got nine automatic berths among 53 competing nations. DR Congo took the tenth through the interconfederation playoff. At the time of the report, eight African teams had made the round of 32, and Tunisia was the only one officially out.
Queiroz thinks the same logic hollows out qualifying elsewhere. He took a sarcastic swipe at South America, where more than half of the confederation’s 10 nations were given places. “In South America, in this moment, the brilliant success of one coach in South America is not to qualify,” he said.
“Even the qualification matches in Europe and Africa, they start to lose the significance and meaning, because everybody is qualified.”
A coach who knows the old format
Ghana hired Queiroz only in April, so his history with the team is short. His record at World Cups is long. This is his fifth as a manager. The first was with Portugal in 2010, then three with Iran, in 2014, 2018 and 2022, all in the 32-team format.
On money, he did not soften anything. “Today, money talks in the game. Money talks,” Queiroz said. “And this is called not football but moneyball. So when money starts to talk, the decisions inside the pitch start to change.”
