MUQDISHO – As many as 13 nations at this summer’s FIFA World Cup released a joint statement expressing their “profound disappointment” with UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin for calling “a huge number of matches” at the tournament “uninteresting.”
Čeferin, the head of the organizing body for European soccer, has often found himself at odds with his counterpart at FIFA, Gianni Infantino who used to hold his position at UEFA. Čeferin scored points with many when his organization appointed Somalian referee Omar Artan to take charge of the UEFA Super Cup after the official had been denied entry to the U.S. while trying to make his way to the World Cup.
However, just as in any more consequential political landscape, any head of government is only ever a few stray comments away from controversy. Cabo Verde, Curaçao, Uzbekistan, DR Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa ensured UEFA’s president was no different.
