At the heart of the most recent complaints is the plan to begin a lucrative new Club World Cup competition, which has the potential to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars but would require 24 clubs to play in a summer tournament akin to the quadrennial World Cup, an event that is worth more than $5 billion to FIFA. It would replace the largely inconsequential Confederations Cup, a World Cup dress rehearsal held in the host country the year before that event.
FIFA had met with representatives from clubs, leagues and players’ unions in February to discuss the possibility of expanding and moving the Club World Cup, which is currently played in December, but the officials said they were provided few details before the meeting.
“To be presented with FIFA’s ‘solution’ as a fait accompli and claim this to be consultation defies all definitions of best practice and good governance,” Richard Scudamore, the executive chairman of England’s Premier League, wrote to Infantino on March 9. Scudamore was writing in his capacity as chairman of the World Leagues Forum, a grouping of top leagues from four continents.
Separate letters were written to Aleksander Ceferin, the president of the European soccer confederation, UEFA, by officials representing clubs and leagues on that continent. Those letters were distributed to FIFA council members at this week’s meeting. Their content was similar in style and tone to Scudamore’s.
“We must share with you our concerns in relation to the process FIFA is engaging in by presenting what appears to be a completed document without any meaningful consultation with stakeholders or indeed their agreement as the basis for discussion,” Andrea Agnelli, chairman of the European Club Association, wrote Ceferin. Agnelli is also chairman of Italy’s most-successful team, Juventus.
FIFA makes about 90 percent of its revenue from the men’s World Cup, but it long has cast envious looks toward Europe, where UEFA is able to generate billions every season from its biggest club competition, the Champions League. A new summer tournament, to be played every four years, would deliver additional funds to FIFA, which has been hunting for new revenue streams to deliver on generous development aid promises Infantino made when he campaigned for election two years ago.
Before his elevation to FIFA president, Infantino had been the secretary general at UEFA, that organization’s No. 2 post, where he worked closely with the clubs to develop the Champions League into a global behemoth, drawing billions of dollars from global sponsors and broadcasters.
The clubs and leagues also have taken issue with Infantino’s proposal for the women’s game, with Agnelli arguing it not only risks the club-led development of the sport in Europe but also the health of players who most likely will face “long and tiring travel” on top of an “an already heavy international match calendar.”
Under the proposed format devised by FIFA, the world’s top 16 teams will be divided into four groups and play in minitournaments to determine a champion. The top teams would only play in an annual November window. Four smaller regional leagues also would play matches in a spring window.
But the larger European nations argued to the FIFA Council that the new women’s league could clash with existing broadcast contracts.
It is not the first time clubs and leagues have faced off with FIFA. The organization has in recent years significantly increased the amount it pays to teams that release players for the World Cup, after a dispute that followed the 2010 World Cup. Several leading clubs were angered at the time because players returned injured from the tournament.
Shortly after his election victory, Infantino, 47, created a new committee to provide a voice for players, coaches and club executives. Making such changes would pave the way to establishing “the highest standards of transparency and good governance,” he wrote in foundation document called FIFA 2.0.
While some of soccer’s most-influential officials, including Scudamore, were put on the new committee, Infantino has been accused of plowing a lone furrow. Lars-Christer Olsson, who heads the Association of European Professional Football Leagues, expressed his concerns in a letter to UEFA’s Ceferin dated March 7.
“I am looking forward to a totally different and trustworthy consultation process, in line with the promises made by the FIFA president when he took office, before any decisions are made in these vital matters for the future development in football,” Olsson wrote.
Reinhard Grindel, the president of Germany’s soccer federation and a member of the FIFA Council, said in an interview Thursday, “We are the biggest football association and we are World Cup winner and he is talking not a word with me.”
The council on Friday delayed making a decision on the expanded Club World Cup plans and the new women’s competition. Its next meeting is in June in Moscow, when its agenda also will include choosing a host for the 2026 World Cup.
Source : NYtimes
