Europe’s elite clubs restate opposition to revamped Club World Cup
Europe’s leading clubs have reiterated their opposition to world governing body Fifa’s plan for a revamped Club World Cup in June 2021 but have said they are happy to talk about a new format after 2024.
Earlier this month, Fifa’s ruling council ignored European opposition to approve a proposal to scrap the existing Club World Cup, which is contested by seven teams every winter, and replace it with a 24-team competition in the summer slot currently used by the Confederations Cup, the largely ignored World Cup warm-up event.
Europe’s clubs, leagues and governing body are not fundamentally against the idea of revamping the Club World Cup, they just do not want to do it without a wider discussion about the international match calendar, which is fixed until 2024. And that has been Europe’s position ever since Fifa president Gianni Infantino first floated the idea of a bigger, richer and more meaningful Club World Cup a year ago.
Speaking to reporters at the European Club Association’s 22nd general assembly in Amsterdam yesterday, ECA chairman Andrea Agnelli restated that stance, saying none of the ECA’S 232 members would “participate in this competition at this moment in time because of the congested calendar”.
But he then added “we are more than happy to discuss changes in the future”.
Sitting alongside Agnelli, who is also chairman of Juventus, were the chief executives of AC Milan and Ajax, Ivan Gazidis and Edwin van der Sar, respectively.
Asked if they could guarantee that their clubs would not be taking one of the eight proposed slots for Europe- an teams in the 2021 competition, Agnelli said “I don’t understand how we could take part, given there is no details on access” to the tournament, while Van Der Sar said “they are planning a tournament but that’s all we know – everything else is unclear”.
Gazidis, the former Arsenal chief executive, then confirmed that “unless and until” work is done on a “coordinated calendar” for the global game, “we can’t take part”.