July 19 – Africa has given its backing to staging the World Cup every two years – in direct opposition to Europe’s standpoint.
FIFA is currently carrying out a feasibility study into making the men’s and women’s World Cup a biennial event, a move backed by the organisation’s head of global football development, Arsene Wenger.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe said his organisation firmly backs the proposal which was originally put forward by Saudi Arabia at the recent FIFA Congress.
“The highest body of CAF deemed it necessary to express its support for that excellent resolution,” Motsepe said after Friday’s CAF Executive Committee meeting in Morocco. “Taking into account the serious financial challenges, lack of infrastructure and facilities, African football could probably be the biggest beneficiary of a World Cup every two years.”
Staging the competition biennially would double FIFA’s income though would prove logistically virtually impossible for Africa which already holds its Nations Cup every other year.
“We will obviously have to look at the totality of our competitions,” Motsepe said when asked how biennial World Cups and Nations Cups could work.
“The World Cup taking place every two years is being looked at by Fifa and they have to go through the processes. At the right time, we will take the right decisions to position African football in the right manner.”
Earlier this month, Spanish football boss Javier Tebas, a UEFA executive committee member, rubbished the idea.
“The European leagues are totally against it,” he said. “We have enough competitions and an eco-system that works pretty well.”
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“The World Cup, European Championship, Champions League, national leagues – they are all excellently run. Let’s just stop creating new competitions. All they do is destroy the way everything is working at the moment.
“We are all in favour of financial solidarity but not for the formats to be changed. We shouldn’t destroy what’s already working. All these fantastic brilliant minds – all they know how do to is create new formats. It’s been going on for years and it’s time to say ‘that’s enough’.”
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