...Enlists Europe’s Big Clubs to Oppose Biennial World Club
UEFA is enlisting the support of Europe's biggest clubs to oppose FIFA's proposal for a biennial World Cup.
The UEFA president, Aleksander
Ceferin, addressed more than 160 of the most powerful clubs at a meeting of the European Club Association in Geneva today.
The audience included the nine European Super League rebels, who have been allowed to re-join the organisation after their dysfunctional insurrection earlier this year, as well as those superpowers, like Paris SaintGermain and Bayern Munich, who refused to participate in the ill-fated project..
At the meeting, the first for Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelseaand Arsenal, since the Super League initiative, Ceferin laid out his concerns over the World Cup being held every two years.
'More is not always better,' the UEFA chief told the 26th General Assembly of the ECA, which was almost torn apart in the spring when news of the Super League – and the treachery of the plotters – emerged.
'You have probably heard that FIFA is conducting a feasibility study about the World Cup every two years,' he continued.
'Well, we think that the jewel of the World Cup has value precisely because of its rarity. But holding it every two years will, by our opinion, lead to…less legitimacy and unfortunately devalue the World Cup itself.
'We feel there is a space for everything and both national teams and clubs are fully occupying that physical and commercial space.
‘The international match calendar does not need that. Our players do not need to see more of their summers spent on consuming tournaments rather than devoted to relaxing and recuperation. But you should speak about that, those players have contracts with you, not with UEFA.'
In the aftermath of the European Super League project, which saw all twelve founding members expelled from the ECA, before the contrite nine were readmitted, the ECA and UEFA were desperate to show unity.
Ceferin heaped praise on the newly elected chairman of the ECA, Nasser Al Khelaifi, who is also the chairman of the French Ligue 1 side, Paris Saint-Germain.
For his part, Al Khelaifi who also welcomed AC Milan, Inter and Atletico Madrid back to the fold, emphasised the solidarity between the ECA and UEFA, claiming the organisations were 'two sides of the same coin'.
And he also highlighted FIFA's proposals for a biennial World Cup as one of the biggest threats to European football, without directly naming the competition.
'We have important challenges to solve,' he told his audience, which included the representatives of European associations and leagues, but not the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, who sent a recorded video message.
In May, FIFA approved a study into holding the World Cup every two years, instead of every four, following a request by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.