On Monday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino gathered the 211 national associations around the world to swear them to his new dream project: the future of the soccer World Cup every two years. Now this obsession is no longer an issue. The two industry giants UEFA and CONMEBOL, the European Union and the South American Association, are fed up with Infantinos’ constant attacks on their own competitions and are starting the counter-offensive: From 2024 Brazil, Argentina with eight other South American countries are to join forces with the 55 teams of UEFA compete in an expanded Nations League.
Sports Talk – Why does FIFA want to host the World Cup every two years?
According to information from UEFA circles, the main features of this spectacular alliance are that six South Americans play in Group A and four in Group B. This would create the concentrate of a soccer World Cup, alternating four years with the well-known World Cup, in which all continental associations take part. UEFA and CONMEBOL, who have provided all previous world champions of the 21 World Cup tournaments since 1930, want to finally torpedo Infantino’s reform plan.
Infantino would only remain a rump event
In March Europe and South America will move into a joint office in London. A team of experts is already working on the new format and other collaborations. If the project is implemented, as the operators assure, all of Infantino’s hopes for more World Cup tournaments would be obsolete. Then he could only set a rump event with Asia, Africa, Oceania and North / Central America against a much more valuable media event in Europe, in which Italy, England, Germany compete with Neymar, Messi and Co.
High UEFA circles emphasize that the new alliance is the receipt for Infantino’s permanent hustle and bustle. In fact, since 2018, the FIFA boss has been making attempts to redirect the billions of billions of football into his sphere of access. Just last week, UEFA submitted an opinion according to which it would lose up to three billion euros in a four-year cycle as part of Infantino’s World Cup reforms. On Monday, Infantino countered with expert reports that show adventurous gains for all involved.
Infantino hides plans at FIFA Convention
Nonetheless, UEFA believes he has grasped the gravity of the situation. This is shown by the fact that Infantino completely concealed the new elite format at the FIFA Convention on Monday – and thus foregoed the chance to accuse the renegades of selfishness and a lack of solidarity on the big stage.