FIFA has presented to its 211 associated federations the plan for holding the World Cup every two years, which must be approved or rejected at the General Assembly to be held next March and which, according to the first estimates, has the support of 165 countries, a majority enough to be accepted. This was confirmed by the president of the organization, Gianni Infantino, who said that “more than one hundred and sixty countries are in favor because it means a better distribution of football money and, more importantly, because it responds to the demand for emotion demanded by young people, who will leave this sport if we do not listen to them. And that, emotion, is essentially the World Cup. “
The leader explained that “UEFA and CONMEBOL oppose the plan because they did not know the data that we presented today, but I am sure that now they will reconsider and support the project without fissures.” Infantino also revealed that “it was precisely CONMEBOL that proposed to me a few years ago to hold a biennial World Cup, although now it seems that they have changed their minds …”. According to the FIFA president, “at the moment seventy percent of football’s revenue goes to UEFA and the rest to the other 155 countries. With the new proposal, the balance will change to 40-60. %, but with the particularity that UEFA will receive two billion more. That is, even if its percentage drops, its income will rise. It is money that will cut differences between the richest and the poorest, also in the large confederations ” , abounded.
The problem, however, is that the two most powerful confederations, UEFA, with its 55 federations, and the South American Confederation, with only ten but including Brazil and Argentina, refuse to change. The opposition of both confederations, led by Aleksander Ceferin and Alejandro Domínguez, has led them to a direct confrontation with Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, who points to a schism in football. “I’m sure you will change your mind when you study in depth the economic studies that we have presented to you today.” “When the South American Confederation suggested that I do a World Cup every two years it seemed like a bad idea, but now it seems to me that it is the best. We have studied it well and we all came out winning, especially the federations. I am sure that the project will become a reality and that it will be launched. “
The new biennial World Cup would be played with the format that will be released in the 2026 edition, which will be played between the United States, Mexico and Canada. There will be 48 teams divided into 16 groups of three teams. The classification would be reduced to two windows (March and October) and this phase could even be reduced to only 28 intensive days, dedicated exclusively to national team football.
According to two of the most important international consultants hired by the organization, ‘Nielsen’ and ‘Open Economics’, the economic impact of a World Cup every two years will be extraordinary and it will have little impact on the international calendar. In summary, these are the conclusions that FIFA has presented to all the national federations that comprise it:
– The biennial FIFA World Cup would mean an increase of 4,400 million dollars in revenue for FIFA.
– Increase of 7,000 million dollars (48-team tournament) to $ 11.4 billion in press and TV rights, sponsorships and tickets.
– The net results of the new income stream will be distributed in the new Solidarity Fund.
– A fund of 3.5 billion dollars in the first four-year cycle will be dedicated to projects for the development of football.
– On average, each federation could receive 16 million dollars in each cycle four years, this in addition to the current investment of the FIFA Forward Program, which would go from the current 6 million to 9 million dollars.
– Increased global distribution of FIFA funds would contribute to reducing the income gap between the more and less developed countries, since FIFA is the only governing body that distributes its income worldwide.
– Holding the World Cup every two years would mean an increase of $ 80 billion in world GDP over a 16-year cycle and about a million jobs Worldwide.
– Revenues generated by the top five European leagues and the UEFA Champions League have increased steadily year over year, regardless of overlapping major finals of national team tournaments (i.e. World Cup and the Eurocup). In other words, scheduling relevant competitions for national teams does not detract from the income generated by international team and club competitions.
– The historical trajectory shows that there is no negative correlation between the income generated by the final stages of national team and club league tournaments. The empirical data collected in the last decade shows that, together, the percentage of growth in the revenues of the five main European leagues was higher in the seasons in which a major national team tournament was organized nationals with respect to others in which such tournaments were not held (42% compared to 26%).