FIFA open to ‘cross-border’ soccer leagues

DOHA FIFA could drop its long-standing opposition to cross-border leagues, as it looks to help countries that are struggling to compete with the giants of the game, president Gianni Infantino said on Friday.

FIFA has always opposed attempts to create multinational leagues, saying the basis of the game was the national competition.

Infantino’s predecessor, Sepp Blatter, was strongly opposed to such plans. European governing body UEFA has also blocked such initiatives, looking to its own competitions as a way of providing extra competition and revenue for clubs.

Yet, faced with the commercial power of the big leagues, such as England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga, Infantino says the idea of new loops should be considered.

“We need to be open to discussions. The Belgians and the Dutch have been discussing creating a Benelux league, and these discussions have been going on for 20 years and we’re always saying no, because we’re based on national leagues,” he told reporters.

“But maybe it helps? Maybe it’s the only way out, maybe in Europe they have to think about this, maybe in Africa. I was proposing something like this for Africa. We have the duty to study these things.”

In the early 2000s, a plan was drawn up for an “Atlantic League” featuring clubs from the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Scotland, with some Scandinavian countries, but it was rejected by UEFA.

Clubs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are in exploratory talks about a possible “All-island League,” while Scottish teams Rangers and Celtic have often talked about joining the English Premier League.

Fuelling such talk has been the fact that clubs from smaller leagues have increasingly struggled to reach the group stages, let alone the knockout phases, of the Champions League.