February 4 – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its members have attacked FIFA’s plans for a biennial World Cup, saying that global finals every two years would cause ‘immeasurable damage’ to global sport.
On the eve of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, IOC members labelled Zurich’s fading biennial revolution a ‘threat’ with delegates at the 139th IOC congress lining up to attack FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his biennial proposal.
National Olympic Committees of Africa president, Mustapha Berraf said: “The plan would create immeasurable damage and would put sport in danger and in particular football. It would simply push away other sports and relegate them to the backbenches – which is unacceptable – and create a rift between women’s and men’s sport, and be a setback to our aim of creating equity and parity for all sports.”
“There comes a point where the athletes have to say: ‘Stop,” said Ryu Seung-min, a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission and a former Olympic table tennis gold medallist. Head of United World Wrestling Nenad Lalovic was also among those critical of Zurich’s idea.
Infantino is an IOC member, but the FIFA boss was neither in Beijing nor present online. On Friday, Infantino, who lives in Doha, was in Yaounde where the Africa Cup of Nations will culminate on Sunday with the final between Senegal and Egypt.
“We all would have very much liked to discuss the FIFA proposal for a biennial World Cup together with the FIFA president and IOC member,” said IOC president Thomas Bach who remarked that it “is not possible … because he cancelled his visit to Beijing the day before yesterday.”
The criticism and coordinated attack is another blow to Infantino’s plans as well as his reputation as a global leader. It also questions FIFA’s role in the wider global sports movement and whether it is behaving as a good global citizen.
Last week CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said that the biennial World Cup had no chance of succeeding. The South American governing body and UEFA, along with leagues and clubs, have formed a front against Zurich.
FIFA has conducted a feasibility study into a biennial World Cup and pushed the proposal with a PR campaign, but after the last Council meeting Infantino struck a more conciliatory tone and abandoned plans to stage a vote on the idea before the end of 2021.
He didn’t abandon completely the prospect of it coming before FIFA’s nations for a vote.
However, in countries where football is dependent for much of its development on government grants via National Olympic Committees, Infantino will likely see his support rapidly dropping away. That could swiftly become support being lost in Infantino’s core constituencies, not just for the biennial World Cup itself, but also for Infantino and his re-election as governments and NOCs bring pressure to bear on their football federation presidents.
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