INFANTINO GIVES FIFA WISH LIST OF EVENTS
A 32-team men’s Club World Cup in 2025. A new version of the tournament for women. National teams from different continents playing each other more often between World Cups.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino shared his wish list Friday to create and revamp games and events under the soccer body’s control — and provoked criticism in Europe from officials left sidelined by the tactical move.
A “FIFA World Series” was floated of four-team friendly tournaments in March before major championships in even-numbered years, plus combining the international breaks in September and October to a single block of four national team games.
Some of the ideas are not new, but the debate and announcement in Qatar two days before the World Cup final still caught soccer officials in Europe by surprise.
“We will now consult on all of these topics and then elaborate on all the details,”
Infantino said at a news conference after the 37-member FIFA Council agreed on “strategic principles” for new competitions.
Members of the European Club Association and European Leagues groups said they were scrambling to learn the unexpected details of FIFA’s plans.
“These decisions have been made unilaterally without consulting, let alone agreeing, with those who are directly affected by them: The leagues, their member clubs, the players and fans,” the Zurich-based World Leagues Forum said.
A Club World Cup of 24 teams was due in 2021 in China but was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though no tournament format had been agreed to nor commercial partners signed.
Infantino committed FIFA to a 32-team version in 21⁄2 years, one week after failing to secure a working agreement in Doha with the influential ECA and one day after the proposed Super League project endured another setback in court in
Luxembourg.
“The 32-team tournament will go ahead, making it really like a World Cup,” Infantino said about an event in June-July 2025 that would require some teams to play six or seven games.
The global players’ union FIFPRO, which also reached only a limited working deal with FIFA in Qatar this month, said the plans could “aggravate pressure on the
welfare and employment of players.”
“Once again, decisions to scale competitions without implementing appropriate safeguards are shortsighted and pay no attention to players’ health and performance,” the Netherlandsbased union said.
It is unclear how clubs would qualify for their global event — potentially worth tens of millions of dollars to each in prize money — or how many entries each continent would get, though Europe likely would have 12.
“The details, the location and so on still need to be discussed, agreed and decided,” Infantino said.
Former England and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who is now a broadcaster on British television, called it a “ridiculous idea.”
Now what?
FIFA has described this World Cup as the best ever. What remains to be seen is the true impact of its unprecedented scheduling in midseason.
The Qatar event is being staged in November and December for the first time in the World Cup’s 92-year history. The aftermath will worry Europe’s biggest soccer clubs.
Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic says “we are exhausted. Many of us will be exhausted when we come back to our clubs.”
The disruption caused by staging the World Cup during the European season has long been a bone of contention. Leagues crammed their schedules before the tournament and will be even more congested afterwards.
Notable
FIFA expects to earn $11 billion in the 2026 World Cup cycle with a 48-team men’s tournament in North America set to deliver a big increase in revenue amid ongoing uncertainty about the exact match schedule.
• Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konate are among five France players who missed training two days before the World Cup final against Argentina. The two center backs have reportedly become the latest members of the France squad to be affected by a virus.
• Spain midfielder and World Cup winner Sergio Busquets, 34, is retiring from international soccer. Spain’s national team announced that Busquets is retiring after 143 appearances.
• Victories by Argentina and France in the World Cup semifinals were each seen by nine million people in the U.S., according to Nielsen.