December 21 – With the World Cup at an end and Doha returning to some sense of normality, FIFA is thinking of the future and has reportedly re-floated the idea of staging the World Cup on a triennial basis.
UK newspaper the Daily Mail reported that the world federation is revisiting plans for a radical change to the globalfootball calendar.
The idea was first floated earlier this year after FIFA’s plans for a biennial World Cup died a slow death. With the encouragement of FIFA, the Saudi Football Federation had requested the idea of a World Cup every two years be studied, a request backed up by Morocco’s outspoken and increasingly influential president Fouzi Lekjaa.
However, following an extensive PR campaign and analysis FIFA could not overcome widespread resistance. They are reportedly prepared to test that resistance again with the idea of a triennial World Cup now being discussed again in Zurich.
A triennial World Cup would dramatically change the landscape and calendar of the global game, one that its stakeholders are already getting to grips with after FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s announcement in Doha at the end of the World Cup that in 2025 the Club World Cup will be expanded to 32 teams.
At present, the competition has seven participants and is often considered a distraction to the European champions who at the time it is generally played are involved in more important, higher earning and higher profile domestic and confederation club competitions.
An enlarged version of FIFA’s CWC is targeting Europe’s big clubs – not least those that attempted the European Super League breakaway – as well as the broadcast and sponsorship revenues of Europe’s club competitions.
If the FIFA discussion on a triennial World Cup (with an implementation post 2030) is in fact a serious discussion – which has still to be confirmed – then multiple questions are raised.
How much TV and commercial money is there to go round to satisfy the collective greed that only seems to grow in appeitie? What does a triennial World Cup mean for other confederation championships that are building, increasingly successful and considerably more inclusive? And at what point will players’ bodies break?
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