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The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has submitted a potentially explosive proposal for a lucrative, revamped Club World Cup, featuring top Premier League and European clubs and to be played every season. Uefa is understood to be fiercely opposed to the proposals, which will be considered by Fifa’s council meeting in Rwanda on Wednesday. European football’s governing body will regard any plan for an annual club tournament as a direct challenge to the Champions League.
Uefa and the European Club Association were highly critical of Fifa’s proposals earlier this year to reconfigure the Club World Cup. Speaking at the time, Infantino said he had investors, who were never identified, willing to pay $12bn for four tournaments every four years from 2021. The Japanese finance house Softbank is widely reported to be representing the plan’s financial backers, whom Fifa has not named, although the world governing body has downplayed reports that a major portion of the money is coming from Saudi Arabia.
Infantino has met the king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, four times in the past year, but Saudi involvement in any Fifa venture would be deeply controversial given the worldwide revulsion at the violent death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.
Infantino is seeking re-election as Fifa president next year and has promised Fifa’s national member football associations that the world governing body will spend “more than $4bn” on football development globally by 2026. Fifa is pledging that significant income will be distributed to national associations from the revamped Club World Cup, and a new Nations League, for which the investors promised $13bn over 12 years – a total of $25bn for the two tournaments.
Individual clubs, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as those from the Premier League, emerged from Fifa presentations supporting the idea of a new Club World Cup every four years, which promised an average of more than £100m to each participating club.
Infantino had pushed for a quick decision to be taken, saying that the investors had set a 60-day deadline, but after meeting strong opposition from Uefa and the ECA, the proposal was shelved, no vote was taken and Fifa promised to undertake further consultation.
This week, the 36 council members from Fifa’s six regional confederations will be presented again with the suggested revamp of the Club World Cup and a new World Nations League. The proposals are understood to include one option for a new club tournament with an increased number of teams (the options last time were 16 or 24) to take place every four years, instead of the current Confederations Cup, in June the year before every World Cup.
The second proposal, which will be seen as highly provocative by Uefa in particular, is for the new Club World Cup tournament to be held every season.
One option presented to the council is for an annual tournament to take place in July and August, while another is to hold it annually and agree a different time slot, presumably during the season.
The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, derided the Fifa plan in May, in a speech to EU sports ministers, saying: “I cannot accept that some people who are blinded by the pursuit of profit are considering to sell the soul of football tournaments to nebulous private funds. Money does not rule – and the European sports model must be respected. Football is not for sale. I will not let anyone sacrifice its structures on the altar of a highly cynical and ruthless mercantilism.”
The ECA and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli was also scathing about the proposal last time, describing the financial projections as “dodgy”. Agnelli stressed that the football tournament calendar is globally agreed until 2024 and his priority after that is to seek expansion of the Champions League format to include more matches – and therefore more revenues – for participating teams.
A Uefa source told the Guardian that its position has not changed since Infantino last presented the proposals, so Uefa’s nine members on the Fifa council, including Ceferin, are expected to state their pronounced opposition at the meeting.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...r-annual-club-world-cup-uefa-champions-league
Uefa and the European Club Association were highly critical of Fifa’s proposals earlier this year to reconfigure the Club World Cup. Speaking at the time, Infantino said he had investors, who were never identified, willing to pay $12bn for four tournaments every four years from 2021. The Japanese finance house Softbank is widely reported to be representing the plan’s financial backers, whom Fifa has not named, although the world governing body has downplayed reports that a major portion of the money is coming from Saudi Arabia.
Infantino has met the king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, four times in the past year, but Saudi involvement in any Fifa venture would be deeply controversial given the worldwide revulsion at the violent death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.
Infantino is seeking re-election as Fifa president next year and has promised Fifa’s national member football associations that the world governing body will spend “more than $4bn” on football development globally by 2026. Fifa is pledging that significant income will be distributed to national associations from the revamped Club World Cup, and a new Nations League, for which the investors promised $13bn over 12 years – a total of $25bn for the two tournaments.
Individual clubs, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as those from the Premier League, emerged from Fifa presentations supporting the idea of a new Club World Cup every four years, which promised an average of more than £100m to each participating club.
Infantino had pushed for a quick decision to be taken, saying that the investors had set a 60-day deadline, but after meeting strong opposition from Uefa and the ECA, the proposal was shelved, no vote was taken and Fifa promised to undertake further consultation.
This week, the 36 council members from Fifa’s six regional confederations will be presented again with the suggested revamp of the Club World Cup and a new World Nations League. The proposals are understood to include one option for a new club tournament with an increased number of teams (the options last time were 16 or 24) to take place every four years, instead of the current Confederations Cup, in June the year before every World Cup.
The second proposal, which will be seen as highly provocative by Uefa in particular, is for the new Club World Cup tournament to be held every season.
One option presented to the council is for an annual tournament to take place in July and August, while another is to hold it annually and agree a different time slot, presumably during the season.
The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, derided the Fifa plan in May, in a speech to EU sports ministers, saying: “I cannot accept that some people who are blinded by the pursuit of profit are considering to sell the soul of football tournaments to nebulous private funds. Money does not rule – and the European sports model must be respected. Football is not for sale. I will not let anyone sacrifice its structures on the altar of a highly cynical and ruthless mercantilism.”
The ECA and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli was also scathing about the proposal last time, describing the financial projections as “dodgy”. Agnelli stressed that the football tournament calendar is globally agreed until 2024 and his priority after that is to seek expansion of the Champions League format to include more matches – and therefore more revenues – for participating teams.
A Uefa source told the Guardian that its position has not changed since Infantino last presented the proposals, so Uefa’s nine members on the Fifa council, including Ceferin, are expected to state their pronounced opposition at the meeting.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...r-annual-club-world-cup-uefa-champions-league
StephenH
David Ginola
Show me the money, whatever happened to our great game.
Exactly the same thing as every entertainment event they are all commodities.
StephenH
David Ginola
It survived the Intertoto it’ll be fine. More games for the sproggs in the academies.
These things will die a natural death like many FIFA brain waves.
hahhahahahhah yeh right moral highgound Uefa - Fifa are trying to get the CL money from Uefa thats all this is, both are as bad as each other.
The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, derided the Fifa plan in May, in a speech to EU sports ministers, saying: “I cannot accept that some people who are blinded by the pursuit of profit are considering to sell the soul of football tournaments to nebulous private funds. Money does not rule – and the European sports model must be respected. Football is not for sale. I will not let anyone sacrifice its structures on the altar of a highly cynical and ruthless mercantilism.”
The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, derided the Fifa plan in May, in a speech to EU sports ministers, saying: “I cannot accept that some people who are blinded by the pursuit of profit are considering to sell the soul of football tournaments to nebulous private funds. Money does not rule – and the European sports model must be respected. Football is not for sale. I will not let anyone sacrifice its structures on the altar of a highly cynical and ruthless mercantilism.”
Bullet
Andy Thompson
Yeah, they propose either a huge tournament every 4 years or the same every year.... hoping people will be so appalled by the latter they will allow the former.
Like asking your mum if you can have 3 ice creams, she relents and gives you 1 ice cream.
Maybe the big clubs will start to nurture 2 genuine teams to cope with all the fixtures; a squad of 35 with plenty of players hanging around, ready to play in whichever tournament is happening
Like asking your mum if you can have 3 ice creams, she relents and gives you 1 ice cream.
Maybe the big clubs will start to nurture 2 genuine teams to cope with all the fixtures; a squad of 35 with plenty of players hanging around, ready to play in whichever tournament is happening
Its good that UEFA are against his ludicrous idea. These proposals, on top of the meaningless Nations League which UEFA recently introduced, will lead to players having shorter careers or having to decide which competitions they play in such that they can get something of a break
Rugby is obviously much more of an attritional sport however there seems to be a realisation from the rugby authorities that players need a break. Look at the measures announced recently half way down here - helps players stay healthy, which in turn protects the quality of the sport
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45956402
Cricket has suffered from an over-saturisation of international matches/tournaments/formats etc. Football is at risk of going that way too
Rugby is obviously much more of an attritional sport however there seems to be a realisation from the rugby authorities that players need a break. Look at the measures announced recently half way down here - helps players stay healthy, which in turn protects the quality of the sport
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45956402
Cricket has suffered from an over-saturisation of international matches/tournaments/formats etc. Football is at risk of going that way too
they are basically trying to get a bit of money from tournaments like the pre season in the US, Fifa get their money, infantino gets elected in perpetuity as he can bribe smaller FAs with an invite - its a cash grab that's all. Glad Uefa is apposed but as we can see by doing two games (one at 6pm) they have no concern over integrity of football, big rumours are next lot of CL games will be on a Saturday.
ShipOfTheseus
Clint Dempsey
If Milo's point was addressed and qualification was on merit, whether this is a good thing or not depends on whether there are any non-European clubs which would be exciting to watch in a global CL. No idea how the best Argentine or Brazilian teams would actually stack up against the Real Madrids and THFCs, but wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand.
parklane1
Tony Galvin
Indeed.
jts1882
Dean Richards
Most of the best players are in Europe.
If a South American club gets a group of youngsters and has a genuinely competitive team, the chances are by the time of the tournament they will have lost their best players.
If such a tournament was to work, players should be assigned to the teams they were at on qualification. It wouldn't be a bad principle to apply to all international club tournaments.
One of the arguments for is the S American teams will get more money meaning that in the short term they would not sell their players so quickly and the longer term may be able to get rich and compete themselves.
