Streak through a World Cup every 2 years
A biennial football World Cup is off the track, Uefa boss Aleksander Ceferin has announced. According to the president, FIFA has also repented.
"A biennial World Cup is a no-go for everyone in football. I am glad that FIFA realizes that too, " Ceferin said during the Financial Times Football Business Summit . "I had a discussion about it with the president of FIFA this week. We cannot say that football cannot be developed in other continents, but we must be on the same page and it must not harm the dollarpese and South American unions.”
FIFA really wanted this: a football World Cup every two years. That sounds nice, a football World Cup every two years. But is it so much fun? In addition to a lot of advantages, there are also a number of disadvantages to a biennial football World Cup. We will discuss these in this article.
Football every two years
When it World Cup football every two years, FIFA will receive an additional $ 3.9 billion. This was announced by FIFA at the beginning of the summit (december 2021( where the biennial football World Cup is discussed.
At this online 'summit', the so-called Global Summit of FIFA, there is no vote. FIFA uses the Virtual Football Summit to inform and excite the countries about the plan.
No less than Arsène Wenger initiator of the idea of organizing the World Cup every two years and is therefore closely involved in the plans.
What are the benefits of a World Cup every two years? We'll go over the pros and cons with you.
Pros and cons World Cup football every other year
According to FIFA, a World Cup every four years is obsolete in today's society. In order to keep the World Cup relevant, the World Cup should be organized much more frequently. FIFA uses well-known former footballers to promote this idea. Ronaldo said: "I believe the time has come to change with the new generations, the quick information.
Football fans are excited
FIFA conducted a survey of 15,000 football fans around the world with the question: How often do you want a football World Cup? One could choose from the answers every four, three, two or every year. Every year and every two years, 55% of the study participants were elected together. FIFA concluded that a majority of fans want to see a World Cup more often.
The striking thing is that in all age groups, the most popular answer was " every four years." Even in the youngest group (18-24), a World Cup every four years still scores best with 37 percent. FIFA therefore seems to interpret the figures in the way that suits FIFA Best.
More World Cups so more fun matches
Arsène Wenger has been appointed Chief of Global Football development at FIFA. He is very much in favor of the idea. Quite strange because as a coach he still has to know how heavy the current program is and that an extra World Cup will make it all even heavier. But Arsène Wenger defends himself with the words: “you can be against more World Cups, but then there will still be a lot of football. Above all, do not think that we will not play.”
In short: the football calendar will always be jam-packed, so you have to see how you can fill it in as qualitatively as possible.
UEFA is against it because the football calendar is already far too full. According to Wenger, that is nonsense because why does UEFA organize a Nations League? And if clubs feel their players need more rest, why do clubs still schedule Intercontinental Football trips?
More rest for the players
Currently, qualifiers are still being played in september, October, november and March. You can imagine that many players like Messi make quite a few flying hours.
FIFA proposes to divide this into fewer periods and make it one long qualifying period. There are two proposals: one in October or two shorter ones in March and October.
This change would have reduced Messi's flight hours from 300,700 to 137,000 in a period from 2014 to 2018.
Biennial World Cup in June
FIFA would prefer the biennial World Cup to take place in June. In the years when there is no World Cup football, the different continents can organize their European Championship, Copa America and Africa Cup, according to FIFA. In that case, there would be either a World Cup or an European football championship every year.
Holidays for footballers
Wenger is proposing a 25-day mandatory rest period in July for footballers. For example, there is a guaranteed holiday period for the top footballers, they have to travel less often and can play a World Cup more often.
For both players and clubs, the idea of a World Cup every two years seems to have many advantages in this way. However, clubs are not happy that they do not see their players at all every year in June and July (and maybe October). In addition, after each season, players also have to recharge for a heavy European or World Cup tournament.
More top matches
The sun rises for nothing! Matches should also be deleted. For example, FIFA wants the UEFA Nations League to be abolished. FIFA itself is also making a sacrifice and abandoning its own plan for a comprehensive World Cup for club teams. There should also be fewer qualifiers. For example, FIFA proposes four countries per qualifying group. Then a country plays only six duels. Now there are eight of them, and sometimes even ten.
Big countries and good players are happy because they have to play less often against lesser opponents like San Marino or Gibraltar. The smaller countries will not be happy about this. They like to play against big countries.
FIFA decided to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 countries by 2026. You should then use it as topland like New Zealand make a lot of fur so as not to qualify for a football World Cup!
Development of football
FIFA pretends to do all this because it would be good for the development of football all over the world. More WCS make more money. The prize money for the countries (the unions) will increase explosively. Poor football countries also share in the 'profit'.
Experience small football countries
Another advantage is that more countries will be able to participate more easily and thus gain experience. Because there would be more World Cups, it is also possible for countries to organize a World Cup. There are countries that are eager to jump in and have often made a throw at the organization of a football World Cup.
You may wonder what kind of countries the World Cups will be organized in. The proposal for a World Cup every two years comes from Saudi Arabia. They are considering running for the 2030 World Cup. With the corruption of the past World Cups, it is therefore only a question of whether the promise to give a lot of money to the poor countries will be fulfilled.
Women's football?
And then there is women's football. In recent years, women's football has been on the rise and is receiving more attention. But this plan seems to blow away women's football.
Devaluation of the football World Cup
A football World Cup is something special. You have to wait four years for it and the whole world is looking forward to it. If a World Cup were to take place every two years, the World Cup would devalue the tournament. It becomes less special and people start to value it less. Every day Fries are also not fun in the long run.
UEFA vs. biennial World Cup
UEFA is not keen on an extra World Cup. UEFA makes good money from its own tournaments. With the European Championship and the Champions League, she organizes two of three largest football tournaments in the world. An extra World Cup is (financially) only bad from UEFA's point of view.
Voting on biannual World Cup football
Whether the plan will go ahead remains to be seen. It is planned that a vote will be taken at the FIFA Congress in Doha on March 31, 2022. 211 countries can vote there. with 55 votes, dollarpa has too few votes to hold back the decision with a majority. The South American countries would also not be waiting for a biennial World Cup.
So it remains to be seen whether there will be a biennial football World Cup. Especially because UEFA is against it and countries do not seem to be obliged to participate in it, we think that the plan will die.
World Cup every two years
If the World Cup is organized every two years, that's great for our website! We organize European Championship and World Cup groups and we can therefore more often World Cup pools organize.
