FIFA President Gianni Infantino praised the level achieved by the World Cup in Qatar so far. According to the Swiss, different countries are inferior to each other.
“It was the best group stage ever in a World Cup,” Infantino said on Wednesday. “This bodes well for the rest of the tournament. The matches were of a great standard.”
“There are no more big and small teams. It’s very even. For the first time in history, all continents have been represented in the knockout stage. This shows that football has truly become a global sport.”
In addition to eight European countries in the round of 16, Africa was represented by Morocco and Senegal, Asia, Japan, South Korea and South America were represented by Brazil and Argentina. Australia was the only country from Oceania to get into the round of 16, although this country is officially a member of the Asian Football Confederation.
Infantino is also very pleased with the crowd at the World Cup. “The number of spectators is unbelievable: an average of more than 51,000 spectators per match. Stadiums are sold out for almost every match. We have record numbers with over 2 billion TV viewers. It’s really incredible.”
Wednesday is the first rest day during the World Cup. The tournament continues on Friday with the quarter-finals. In it, the Netherlands national team will play against Argentina on Friday at 8 pm.
