December 19 – The World Leagues Forum (WLF), has joined the world players’ union Fifpro in condemning FIFA for its “unilateral decisions” on international calendar which it says are “damaging for the football industry”.
Following the FIFA Council meeting last Friday in Qatar, before the World Cup final, FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino announced a 32-team Club World Cup in 2025 and a review of the 2026 World Cup format to potentially switch to groups of four teams instead of three teams as already agreed.
The WLF said the “significant” FIFA Council decisions about the international match calendar “could have damaging consequences for the football economy and player welfare. These decisions have been made unilaterally without consulting, let alone agreeing, with those who are directly affected by them: the leagues, their member clubs, the players and fans.”
WLF argues that the calendar is already overloaded and that FIFA is now creating the risk of fixture congestion, payer injuries and an even greater distortion of competitive balance.
“The interests of the football community, which we expect FIFA to take care of, are not bestserved by piling-up FIFA-owned matches which only involve the top 1% of players,” said the WLF.
“Instead, we should all expect FIFA to create the environment for a complementary balance between domestic and international football for the benefit of the whole game.”
The WLF said it is contacting FIFA to ask for a transparent process for calendar and
competition decisions, and that it will call a board meeting in January “to review FIFA’s response and assess the impact their proposals could have on the foundations of the game at domestic level.”
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