December 2 – The president of the German Football Federation (DFB), Reinhardt Grindel (pictured), says it is time to do away with the Confederations Cup, the traditional World Cup warm-up tournament, to ease fixture congestion and allow elite players to have a decent rest the summer before the World Cup itself.
“I think the Confederations Cup has become anachronistic,” Grindel said in an interview with German daily Hamburger Abendblatt.
“It would be a positive gesture towards Europe’s elite clubs, who with good reason complain about the excessive number of fixtures their players face, if we were to say that we are willing to scrap a tournament.”
World Champions Germany are one of eight nations scheduled to play the 2017 tournament across four cities in Russia next summer. But Grindel believes FIFA should foot the bill for the teams taking part and said this would be suggested at a meeting this month with FIFA general-secretary Fatma Samoura.
“In December, in a meeting with the secretary general of FIFA, we will reiterate that the governing body should assume all the costs of the delegation,” Grindel added.
The draw for the eight-team Confederations Cup took place last weekend in Kazan where the world champions were drawn with Chile, Australia and the champions of Africa. Host cities will be Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi and Kazan and Germany coach Joachim Löw has intimated that he will take an experimental squad to preserve the energy of some of his key stars for the World Cup.
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