By Paul Nicholson
November 28 – Gianni Infantino has repeated his case for a World Cup to be held every year. Speaking to Asia’s member associations at the Asian Football Confederation congress, held virtually at the weekend, he argued that the game needed to be more global and that it needed to be kept relevant.
Infantino in his address opened with how the focus was on Asia for the next two years with both men’s World Cup in Qatar in 2022 and the women’s World Cup being co-hosted by Australia in 2023. “Asia is ready to shine on the world stage,” said Infantino.
He swiftly moved on to the controversial biennial World Cup proposal, a project that would define his leadership, and redefine global football, if it came to pass.
Pointing out that 88% of FIFA’s membership had voted “to explore the feasibility for biennial men’s and women’s World Cups”, he then proceeded to issue a defence of Arsene Wenger and Jill Ellis who have become the drivers of the projects.
“We have mandated Wenger and Ellis to look at it from a football point of view. Not a commercial point of view. They have presented some ideas for consultation,” he said.
With a recent report calculating that $8 billion will be lost to football of the World Cup was turned into a biennial event, Infantino was keen to emphasise that Wenger was not looking at the economic aspects of the game.
However, he did say that football had reached a “critical juncture…We need to project a global football, we need to keep the game relevant…We need to give opportunity, the chance to dream. We can’t have football confined to one part (of the world) it has to be open…”
“It is normal to have people for and against – we understand that and we respect the people at the top (of the game), but at the same time our global responsibility is to listen to everyone, to hear them and to consult everyone,” he continued.
Appealing directly to the AFC members, he said “it is important to make your voice heard and the world has to listen to you. We need to open doors and be inclusive for the entire world.”
Infantino has been under a huge amount of criticism from Europe and South America with Europe saying that they would likely boycott and move to a biennial World Cup.
While clearly pushing Asian associations towards the idea, he did caveat his comments and suggest that there could be other international calendar options.
“We will see…” he said. “We will look at the sporting and the commercial side. Maybe we will have a biennial World Cup or maybe there are other opportunities at intercontinental level. What we must have is more meaningful and more challenging games. We will only make it (biennial) if it is beneficial for everyone.”
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