FIFA: Biennial Cup adds up

FIFA has claimed staging the World Cup every two years would offer enormous financial benefits for its member federations as president Gianni Infantino expressed hope that the highly controversial plans would not be derailed by opposition from Europe and South America.

Infantino was speaking after FIFA held a virtual global summit with federations to discuss the project, although there was no vote on the subject on Monday and he refused to confirm if there would be one at the next FIFA Congress which takes place on March 31.

Football’s global body published findings from two separate feasibility studies which it claimed showed there would be “a strong upturn in football’s economic situation” if the World Cup was held as a biennial tournament rather than the current four-year cycle for the men’s and women’s competitions.

One study, carried out by market researchers Nielsen, estimated that approximately $4.4 billion of additional revenues would be generated over four years, with income from gate receipts, media rights and sponsorship increasing from seven billion dollars to $11.4 billion.

To help convince its 211 member federations — 207 of whom participated in Monday’s summit — FIFA vowed to hand over an extra $19 million every four years to each one, with the amount the same for major federations such as Brazil and France as it would be for Andorra or Guam.

Each member would get “around $16 million” allocated from a “Solidarity Fund” of some $3.5 billion in the first four years of the reformed calendar, as well as an increase in funding via its FIFA Forward programme from the current six million dollars to nine million.

UEFA, as well as leading European clubs and leagues, have all united in opposition to the biennial World Cup plans.

In South America, CONMEBOL rejected the proposal.