Gianni Infantino: Majority of countries would vote for Arsene Wenger's proposal of biennial World Cups
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Published 20/12/2021 at 20:58 GMT
The idea of playing World Cup every two years instead of four has been met with strong opposition, but FIFA are still keen to move ahead with the proposal. Speaking at a global FIFA summit, president Gianni Infantino said that it is "feasible" and suggested that the younger generation want to see more football.
Gianni Infantino
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FIFA president Gianni Infantino thinks a majority of countries would vote in favour of biennial World Cups.
FIFA released a feasibility report on Monday showing that switching to World Cups every two years would generate £3.3 billion in additional revenue.
But the proposal has been met with strong opposition by fans, UEFA, the major leagues across Europe, and CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body.
“It is feasible to amend the international match calendar, to make it more relevant,” said Infantino at a global FIFA summit.
“It is feasible as well to organise biennial World Cups for men and women. It is feasible to organise annual competitions for youths.
“Not only is it feasible from a sporting point of view, but the economic return is very strong - meaning more money can be invested, re-invested, into football development all over the world.
“This is quite an important project to bridge the gap between those who have and those who don't have. At the end of the day, everyone will benefit. Everyone will have additional possibilities to play and additional revenue as well.”
FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger has led the charge for a biennial World Cup, believing it would be beneficial for player welfare.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has said European countries could boycott the World Cup if it was staged every two years.
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However, Infantino is already confident there is support for increasing the frequency of World Cups if it was put to a vote of all the national associations.
“If I was going to a (Congress) vote tomorrow probably the majority would vote in favour of World Cups every two years,” he said.
“But we are looking at the entire calendar. We are looking at how we can make football better and we’re looking at how many we can bring on board with a new way of organising football in the future.
“We continue the dialogue, we continue the analysis, we hope that we can make progress one way or the other, or some middle way.”
Infantino accepted there is a lot of “opposition” to the idea, but says studies have shown the “young generation want more”.
“There is opposition, a lot of opposition. There are also voices in favour. There are a lot of voices in favour. FIFA is a global organising body.
“For this reason, we need to really try to combine all these different points of view. We cannot say to the rest of the world ‘football is global, give us your money and watch us on TV’.
“We have asked external experts. They showed on the fans' survey, over 100,000 fans in 140 countries, that the young generation want more.
“Our job is to look at everyone. My job as FIFA president is to try and work together with everyone - to think about what is good, and how we can close this gap.”
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