Rummenigge slams 48-team World Cup
> ...and says balance of power shifting towards clubs
FIFA’S decision to increase the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams was described yesterday as nonsense by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chairman of the European Club Association (ECA).
“The increase from 32 to 48 teams is actually nonsense, we had a format which everyone was happy with” he told an audience at the Spobis conference in Dusseldorf.
“The World Cup is a most extraordinary event, it’s the biggest sports event in the world and FIFA must deal with this matter in a more responsible matter and more democratic,” he said, adding that the ECA had not been consulted over the change.
FIFA voted on Jan 10 to allow 16 more teams into the World Cup finals, starting from 2026, but Rummenigge said his members, who under FIFA rules are obliged to release their players for the tournament, had not been consulted.
“FIFA must get together with the ECA and questions will be asked,” he said. “FIFA’s motto is ‘we care about fans’,” he added. “But they need to step away from politics and from finance and pay more attention to football.
Rummenigge said he did not want to get to the stage where clubs refused to release players for the World Cup.
“That is a shift of power that neither UEFA or FIFA can stop and things have changed dramatically in the last few years.”
Rummenigge also warned that the ECA, which has 220 members, that power was moving slowly from FIFA towards the clubs.
“At the end of the day, there are the top clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, the big Spanish and English clubs, Paris St Germain, Juventus,” said Rummenigge, who is also Bayern’s chief executive.
“That is a shift of power that neither UEFA or FIFA can stop and things have changed dramatically in the last few years,” added the former West Germany forward, who was sharing the stage with Borussia Dortmund’s chief executive HansJoachim Watzke.
“If the big clubs were to refuse to allow their players to take part, that would not be in the interest of the fans,” said Rummenigge. “FIFA need to step away from politics and from finance and pay more attention to football.
“The World Cup is a most extraordinary event, it’s the biggest sports event in the world and FIFA must deal with this matter in a more responsible matter and more democratic,” he added.
Watzke was equally critical of FIFA but also rejected a boycott.
“Europe’s top clubs have the feeling at the moment that they are not taken seriously enough by FIFA,” he said. “But nobody is interested in such a break-up, neither the clubs nor FIFA.”
Watzke also criticised the standard of international football and the number of games.
“When you sit down after a hard day’s work to watch Germany play San Marino, you’re asleep on the sofa within 15 minutes,” he said. Rummenigge said that the ECA had a good understanding with European football governing body UEFA but FIFA was different.
“The Africans have different interests to the Europeans and the Asians have different interests to the Africans that is something which is difficult to solve, for any president,” he said. – Reuters