The year of football to come: tournaments and rules, the three great challenges for 2025

It could be an epochal novelty but also a historic flop (let’s hope not): the Club World Cup is about to be born, it’s a nice idea, but its contradictions risk suddenly exploding, involving the entire system. If there is a World Cup for national teams, why shouldn’t there be one for clubs? Nothing more fascinating than a four-year Champions League of Champions, with a great final phase. Problem: when? In a suffocating calendar, FIFA could only place the new tournament on an extra date, at the end of championships, cups and national teams, when the players are on holiday. The first point is this, in addition to a prize pool that is not as rich as imagined but not as despicable either, and a first attempt at a return to free football on TV: in what conditions will the players be? And, above all, what will be the consequences for the clubs that participate and do not have a day off before the new season?

Among those who will know the answer firsthand are Inter and Juve, the two Italians, placed in accessible groups: the Nerazzurri against River Plate, Urawa and Monterrey, the Bianconeri against City, Al Ain and Wydad. The eighths are not impossible. Round of 16 of a mega tournament with 32 teams. The original project was at 24, the less extended times. And there is always the immanent threat of a rebellion by players and the league. Appointment in the States from June 15th to July 13th. Then we will understand.

Having said that the EU Court has given UEFA the power to authorize a new tournament, it is clear that from the anti-system idea we have moved on to a power struggle: the rebels simply want business, they are ready to leave an organization in Nyon almost prohibitive for private individuals. It seems like a transfer scenario, with the clubs perhaps one day being asked to choose. The risk of leaping into the void is just around the corner, especially if the participant carries the ball. On the other hand, free TV is too good an idea not to have hidden risks. Of course, the cost of TV subscriptions is a race to self-destruction, but as long as the players’ salaries remain the same… The new 36-man Champions League only has to be more and more beautiful and spectacular to repel this “double”.

Today, as we know, the tip of a nose beyond the penultimate defender is enough to decree the offside. Honestly, too much. A new offside is being studied which could recall the old concept of “light” between attacker and defender: if a part useful for scoring is in play, foot, head, certainly not the arm, then the attacker is considered completely in play. However, times are long, don’t hold your breath. However, an experiment to combat the time wasted by goalkeepers on the clearance is imminent: today the regulation states that the ball can be held in the hand for 6 seconds, in reality Ifab studies reveal that it can reach up to 20. The Ifab idea is to allow 8 seconds maximum from the moment the goalkeeper is in possession of the ball: when it reaches -5, the referee will indicate the countdown with his hand. The time-wasting goalkeeper will be punished with a “yellow”, the attacker will have the bonus of a corner or a throw-in on the line of the area (at the discretion of the tournament): experimentation also in our C who chose the throw-in. Actual time is not on the agenda at the moment (to play more than 60′, the well-applied regulation is enough) and on-call VAR, the so-called challenge, full of contraindications.