By Andrew Warshaw
November 26 – In a move that seems likely to generate considerable opposition, especially in Europe, and smacks of financial vested interests, FIFA have been asked by Conmebol to consider staging the World Cup every two years.
In what would constitute one of the biggest shakeups in the history of international football – far bigger than expanding the tournament to 48 teams – the proposal has been tabled by Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez and has reportedly not been ruled out by Gianni Infantino who has already come in for criticism over his $25 billion plan to change the footballing landscape with a new-look Club World Cup and a global Nations League.
To be fair, staging the World Cup every two years instead of four was first floated years ago by Sepp Blatter and never got off the ground. But Dominguez says it would be good financially and that more players would have the chance to appear on the biggest stage of all.
Apparently Dominguez, the man who first raised the idea of a 48-team World Cup kicking off in Qatar 2022 rather than in 2026 (a proposal that appears to be rapidly losing traction), put forward this latest suggestion at the FIFA congress in Rwanda last month, according to the New York Times, though it was never made public by FIFA.
“The proposal we have made to FIFA is to play the World Cup every two years and not every four,” Domínguez confirmed at the weekend. “Instead of having the Nations League in between we can just go ahead every two years and have a World Cup and that is for everyone.”
“It’s for the players because they could play four World Cups if we move to a two-year cycle. If we stay with this format many players will not be able to play more than two.
Such a move, Dominguez said, would allow FIFA to spread the tournament more effectively around its six member confederations
“There are many solutions. We could hold the tournament in Europe, South America, North America, Africa and Asia without such a long wait. So we see an opportunity there.”
Quite how staging a biennial World Cup would wash with Europe is, at best, unclear given the status of the European Championship and the fact that UEFA have just launched the Nations League. Likewise Asia and Africa view specific slots for their own regional competitions as sacrosanct.
Then there is the issue of how on earth FIFA could find enough countries to host 48-team tournaments every two years – unless most are shared.
Dominguez’s idea seems predicated on FIFA’s sponsors jumping in with cash to fund the expansion, and governments ready to provide the guarantees required for hosting. The sponsorship market has not been tested and could perhaps prove attractive for sponsors, though this would not be an easy sell. Sponsors are increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of their money ultimately allowing Infantino to fulfill his election promises to massively increase funding to FIFA’s member associations as he prepares to run for re-election next year.
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