KEIR RADNEDGE COMMENTARY —- Do the most highly-paid footballers know any better than anyone else – fans, directors and media, for media – what is best for the long-term health of the game worldwide? FIFA thinks so

The world football federation lined up in Doha, Qatar, the golden oldies from its technical advisory group to push president Gianni Infantino’s vision of a World Cup every two years.

Not that Infantino has specifically come down in favour of the concept but the increasing momentum in its favour among the football family beyond Europe leaves little room for doubt.

He appears to have switched his cash-rich pursuit for worldwide development to the World Cup after his dream of a Softbank-financed expanded Club World Cup was kicked into the long grass.

Former winners such as Brazil’s Ronaldo and France’s David Trezeguet spoke up in favour of the party line in coordination with a presentation by development director Arsene Wenger on the need for a rebalanced international calendar from 2028.

Raison d’etre

Ex-Arsenal manager Wenger, once a fierce defender of clubs against national teams, said: “This advisory group has mainly been built to help us to make football better in the future and also to speak about the international match calendar that is fixed until 2024 and to speak about the competitions, the organisation of a calendar year and the organisation of the competitions.

“The existing problems are basically, mainly, the huge amount of travelling and problems with [players] going from one continent to another and coming back in a fresh state to play again, straight away, for club football. The mixed schedule between national teams and club teams is a problem.”

Wenger favours doubling the World Cuo stagings but trimming the number of international breaks by concentrating national team finals football in the northern hemisphere summer with qualifying ties taking up all of October.

This new calendar should come into effect from 2028. The World Cup is already scheduled for 2030 so the first ‘doubled-up’ tournament would be in 2032

This would mean a concomitant shutdown of the elite club game which is anathema to rich UEFA with its European Champions League which generates more revenue than anything else in football.

Positive Brazilian

Ronaldo, top-scoring World Cup-winner with Brazil in 2002, said: “This format is almost 100 years old – the World Cup being held every four years – and the world has changed, has evolved greatly, the speed of information is insane.

“So I think that in today’s generation, where everything happens so fast, to improve and have a World Cup every two years would be a great opportunity to engage the youth that may be going into different areas, into other sports.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to continue to evolve and attract more people interested in football.”

Trezeguet, a winner with France in 1998, endorsed that view.

He said: “My relationship with the World Cup affected me on every level: the joy of winning it in my own country, which was exceptional, as well as getting to play in tournaments in other countries and continents.

More chances

“Of course, the World Cup is a party where top players and ambitious national teams get together, but the idea is also to help nations to achieve their dream of taking part in it, and I think that’s exceptional.

“Of course, time will tell whether it’s the right choice. Personally speaking, I agree with the idea of giving countries that chance. There are players who deserve the chance to play in the most popular tournament in the world.”

One of the most cogent expressions of support came from Ryan Nelsen, the former New Zealand defender.

Nelsen said: “Absolutely, I’ve always been in favour of it. I think it’s because the smaller countries probably don’t have the infrastructure or developmental capability to compete with some of the European countries.

“That gap is widening. Every two years will give these countries the ability, the dream, the motivation to maybe be able to keep up with the elite, the development – hopefully, some extra funds into the development of football players in that country, into the infrastructure in that country.

“It also gives young athletes growing up in these smaller countries an opportunity to say: ‘I might not play basketball, I might not play rugby, I might not play other sports, [but] I might play football because every two years, I have an opportunity to play in the biggest tournament in the world.’

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