Ceferin says no plan to expand Euros, praises Ronaldo's career

VIDEO SHOWS: UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, SPEAKING AT PORTUGAL FOOTBALL SUMMIT/ B-ROLL OF CEFERIN AND PORTUGAL NATIONAL TEAM RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT SHOWS: OEIRAS, PORTUGAL (OCTOBER 8, 2025) (REUTERS – Access All) 1. PORTUGAL NATIONAL TEAM PLAYERS, ARRIVING 2. PORTUGAL CAPTAIN, CRISTIANO RONALDO, WALKING OVER AND SHAKING HANDS WITH UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN 3. CEFERIN WALKING OUT ON STAGE FOR INTERVIEW 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, SAYING: "The Euro itself, I don't see it being changed. Maybe the qualifiers but with, of course, no more matches because there's no more space for more matches. But maybe, to make qualifiers a bit more interesting, we are thinking a bit about that but not more than thinking. So, not enough to share it here." 5. INTERVIEW IN PROGRESS 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, SAYING: "I will not stay forever but (un)til I'm here, I'm sure I will make sure that the competition is open because football is for everyone. Football is part of our societies, football is a school of life and the dream to win, the dream to qualify, the dream to beat the big guys should stay alive and it will stay alive because otherwise football doesn't make sense." 7. INTERVIEW IN PROGRESS 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, SAYING: "After Covid, after Super League, a colleague of mine came to me and said 'President, we had everything except war'. And then war Ukraine-Russia starts. So, we live in complicated times but I don't say only football everybody lives in complicated times." 9. INTERVIEW IN PROGRESS 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, ON CRISTIANO RONALDO, SAYING: "(I've) never seen such a competitive person. That's why he's struggling to stop. He wants to compete until he's… he is amazing I mean to achieve what he achieved, it's simply… I think we would need two hours conversation to explain everything but great respect for him as a person and as a football player, of course, and also we follow how much he did for the charity which he doesn't need to do and he did." 11. AUDIENCE LISTENING 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, ON CRISTIANO RONALDO, SAYING: "He is, for sure, one of the three names of football of all times." 13. INTERVIEW IN PROGRESS 14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UEFA PRESIDENT, ALEKSANDER CEFERIN, SAYING: "It helped me that I was a criminal lawyer. I said once but it's more or less a joke, to be honest, that I've met less criminals in 25 years of criminal law than in two years of football. But it's an exaggeration I also met many fantastic people." 15. PORTUGAL PLAYERS GOING UP ON STAGE 16. VARIOUS OF PORTUGAL PLAYERS, CEFERIN, PORTUGAL FEDERATION PRESIDENT, PEDRO PROENCA, AND PORTUGAL PRESIDENT, MARCELO REBELO DE SOUSA, POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS STORY: UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says the European football body have no plans to expand the European Championships beyond the current 24-team format.  The 57-year-old Slovene acknowledged his team have considered tweaking the qualification process for the tournament finals, however, but not in a way that would add any more matches to the already congested fixture calendar.  "I don't see the Euros itself being changed. We could maybe make the qualifiers a bit more interesting but there's no more space for more matches," Ceferin told an audience at the Portugal Football Summit 2025 in Oeiras on Wednesday (October 8).  The news comes as qualifiers continue for the expanded 48-team World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico next summer with speculation growing that FIFA may push to expand the 2030 edition of the tournament to 64 teams. Ceferin also took the opportunity to laud Cristiano Ronaldo's storied career with the Portuguese skipper in attendance along with his national team colleagues.  "I've never seen such a competitive person. That's why he's struggling to stop. He is, for sure, one of the three names of football of all times," said Ceferin." (Production: Conal Quinn)

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