Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) will be investigating the possibility of holding the World Cup every two years instead of four, for both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
The organisation will launch a feasibility study into the ramifications of such a decision after a proposal was put forth by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF) at the annual congress. The next edition of the FIFA World Cup will be played in Qatar in 2022 while the women’s tournament will go ahead in 2023 in Australia/New Zealand.
The idea was proposed by Arsene Wenger, who currently holds the position of FIFA’s Head of Global Football Development. His role is to oversee and direct the growth of both men’s and women’s soccer on a global scale, and he believes that the Champions League format is evidence that the World Cup’s impact wouldn’t be diluted if we saw it more frequently.
“I always tell people that the image is not linked to the time you wait for an event to take place, Wenger said, “for example we have the Champions League which is played every year, and fans continue to consume it.”
“We believe the future of football is at a critical juncture. The many issues that football has faced have now been further exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. It is important to review how the global game is structured, which should include whether the current four-year cycle remains the optimum basis for how football is managed both from a competition and a commercial perspective as well as overall football development,” said SAFF president Yasser Al-Misehal.
“Having fewer yet more meaningful competitive national team matches could potentially address concerns regarding player welfare whilst at the same time enhancing the value and merit of such competitions,” he added.
However, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said that the investigation would not be rushed.
“We have to go into these studies with an open mind but we are not going to take decisions which will jeopardise what we are [already] doing. We know about the value of the World Cup, believe me,” said Infantino.
“I would like to put this discussion in a much broader context, that of the international match calendar. Are we really convinced that playing qualifying games [across the year] is the right way when we are saying that fans want more meaningful games? All these points have to be considered. But we will put the sporting element as the top priority, not the commercial element,” he added.
Any potential change to the way that the existing system is run will likely take years, with no official end date for the feasibility study indicated by FIFA.
