(Football news) FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger is leading the plan for the World Cup to be hosted every two years instead of four, which would mean that a major international competition will be held every year that will alternate between World Cups in even years and European Championships and Copa Americas in the odd years.
In a FIFA summit held on Thursday which was attended by more than 200 FIFA member associations and 32 FIFA council members, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said “ambitions for football development across the entire world can only be realised if we have more successful events taking place on a more regular basis."
He added “This first summit was an important step in the consultation process, because it provided both FIFA council members and over 200 FIFA member associations with the opportunity to make proposals, to ask questions and to debate issues in an open and transparent way.
"We want to adopt a holistic approach with a global approach to this project. FIFA has one event that lasts one month every four years that is helping to develop football in 211 member associations and the other FIFA competitions.
"The new FIFA is open for this type of dialogue as we strive to find the best possible solution for women's, men's and youth football going forward, both in terms of international match calendar and final tournaments reform.
"We have the opportunity to shape football history, to look forward, to learn from the past and to design the future because our vision is to make football truly global.
"But we will only make changes if it benefits everyone. No one should be a loser in this, everyone should be better off at the end of the day, otherwise there is no reason to change anything, if the global world of football and everyone in it is not better off. We are aware of the different challenges that this brings."
FIFA has claimed that they have already consulted players and coaches and will now begin consultation with confederations, stakeholders, member associations and fans. After this, they will publish a report at the end of the year. At the summit held on Thursday, both Arsene Wenger and Women’s World Cup winning manager Jill Ellis, who is now FIFA’s technical advisory group leader for women’s football gave presentations.
Arsene Wenger said “It is an audacious proposal for the future of men's football, and it follows four main principles, namely regrouping national team qualifying matches, reducing travel for players, creating more space for meaningful matches and final tournaments, and ensuring a mandatory rest period for players between seasons."
Jill Ellis spoke about increasing the frequency of the Women’s World Cup “Challenges, with the right mindset, can create opportunities. We have issues in both national team football and club football that require substantial change. Our focus is on providing more balanced playing opportunities at national team level across the world, and to find better solutions in moving club football forward.
"Therefore, included in our proposed solution would be the opportunity to change the frequency of the FIFA Women's World Cup and continental tournaments in order to create a much bigger platform for women's football."
Despite the changes proposed by FIFA, Europe’s football governing body UEFA remains opposed to the plans of a biannual World Cup, claiming it will affect the health and welfare of players and damage football on the whole. South American confederation CONMEBOL have already described the situation “highly viable” while Confederation of North and Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) are open to the possibility of a World Cup occurring every two years.
In the four hour summit conducted yesterday, representatives from associations strongly supported and opposed the proposals with questions regarding the finances, player welfare, tournament prestige and its impact on domestic competitions.
