DOHA: FIFA president Gianni Infantino believes he has majority backing for his biennial World Cup plan, after national football leaders were told the switch would create an extra $4.4 billion in revenues for the world body.
FIFA held a ‘global summit’ of leaders of national football federations to discuss its proposal to increase the frequency of the World Cup from every four years to two.
The financial data forms part of an overall feasibility study, of which FIFA presented a summary on Monday with a full 700-page report set to be published.
The upbeat findings are in marked contrast to analysis put forward by critics of the proposals.
There has been opposition from European clubs, the top leagues and European governing body UEFA, whose president Aleksander Ceferin has threatened to boycott any additional tournament.
No vote is yet scheduled for the plan, but Infantino said a majority was in place for the idea but it needed to be dealt with as part of the broader overhaul of the international match calendar.
“If I was going to a vote tomorrow probably the majority would vote in favour of a World Cup every two years,” Infantino told a news conference after the summit.
“But it is not the topic, we are looking at the entire calendar and how we can make football better and how many we can bring on board with a new way of organising the future in football,” he added.
“There is a lot of opposition and there is as well a lot of voices in favour and FIFA is a global organising body, so we need to really try to combine all these different points of view.”
Infantino would not state when any vote would be held or whether it would be on the agenda at the FIFA congress in Doha on March 31.
“It is about getting the right decisions for football at the end of the day and we will take the time that it takes, to come to this decision. I will not commit to anything at the congress. Everything is open and flexible,” he said.
“We continue the dialogue, the analysis, we hope we can make progress, one way or the other, or some middle way, we will see,” he said.
FIFA officials told the delegates that $3.5 billion of the extra revenue would go to a new ‘Member Association Solidarity Fund’ with each national federation allocated around $16 million in a four-year period, while extra funds would also be given to the FIFA Forward Program for development projects.
FIFA said that the funds would help reduce the gap in revenues between the developed and less developed football markets.
“This is certainly a new basis for discussion,” Infantino said of the report he hopes will revive plans to overhaul national-team football that were stalled since September by resistance to its key aim.
“We have presented today a situation where we can come out with a solution that benefits, actually, everyone without harming anyone.”
Monday’s debate in Doha was once intended to lead to a vote on scheduling World Cups every two years for men and women.
It was downgraded to a debate, and a launch for FIFA’s hefty feasibility study, after UEFA and South America’s CONMEBOL threatened boycotts of a biennial World Cup. The International Olympic Committee spoke out against FIFA taking time and attention away from championships in other major sports events.
FIFA aims to drive football development and close the gap on European and South American dominance by giving more teams from other regions more chances to play at World Cups.
Only eight countries have ever won the men’s World Cup since it was first held in 1930, and there has never been a winner from outside Europe or South America.
These confederations will provide more than half the teams for next year’s World Cup in Qatar, which is due to be the last with 32 teams before the competition is expanded to feature 48 nations from 2026.
“Everyone sees that the gap is getting bigger and bigger between a few who have it all and others who have nothing,” said Infantino, a former long-time UEFA official. “We cannot say to the rest of the world it’s great, football is global, give us your money and watch us on TV.”
Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s head of Global Football Development, suggested, without naming UEFA or CONMEBOL, that FIFA’s opponents were scared of losing control of their own continental competitions.
“We face opposition but what I regret is that 90% of this opposition is emotion and not facts and not analysis, we have to get over this fear because most of the emotions that we face are based on fear,” he said.
The IOC is concerned about clashes in the schedule with other sports, the men’s World Cup overshadowing women’s editions of the tournament, and a further massive strain on athlete welfare.
The Summer Olympics, like the European Championship and Copa America, are all scheduled for 2024 and 2028 setting up a direct clash if FIFA expanded beyond its 2026-2030 cycle.
However, Infantino, also an elected member of the IOC, said FIFA’s plans are not a threat to anyone.
“I don’t believe that I am making myself, or we are making ourselves, enemies,” said the FIFA president, who is due for re-election in less than 18 months’ time. “The prestige of a competition like the World Cup will not be undermined by it becoming more frequent.”
Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2021
