[ad_1]
FIFA Vice-President Victor Montagliani has proposed a consensus solution in a row on the two-year proposal for a two-year World Cup governing body.
Montagliani, a Canadian and CONCACAF president who leads the North and Central American and Caribbean Games, is a key ally of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and is likely to discuss his idea for an alternative tournament this month.
Infantino is embroiled in a heated dispute with the UEFA European Confederation over proposals to increase the frequency of the World Cup, and top leagues and clubs are also opposed to plans by FIFA’s Head of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger.
Montagliani told Reuters in an interview that it could be an alternative to the biennial World Cup, a tournament based on the old Confederations Cup, which has not been held since 2017, or a global version of the National League format used by UEFA and CONCACAF.
“The principle of holding an event between the World Cups is completely favorable,” Montagliani said.
“The question is what will it be, how do we see it, how does it affect other things, such as qualifying processes and existing tournaments? That’s the process we have to do,” he added.
READ:
Cafu: The World Biennial will lose all its glamor
The Confederations Cup was held every four years before the World Cup, and each of the eight national championships, such as the Euro Cup and the American Cup continental championships, was the World Cup holder and host.
“We had something between the World Cups, which was the old Confederations Cup. It wasn’t a tournament that everyone turned on, but for some confederations it was a nice link between your regional competition and an international competition and we lost that,” Montagliani said.
“We had four or five years of debates about a ‘Global Nations League’, and these debates are no strangers to the table. These are the events that take place between the cycles of the World Cup.
“What I would like to see (analyze) is the fall, not so much in terms of revenue, but in terms of the impact it has on the ecosystem we have today. I think our approach is to look at this from a whole point of view.”
EXISTING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Canadian said one of the advantages of the Confederations Cup model was that there was no need for a separate qualifying process; that the teams would get positions through existing continental tournaments.
FIFA will hold a summit of all national associations on December 20 to discuss its plans.
READ:
Clubs want FIFA talks on the health risks of the January calls
In October, Infantino said that after UEFA threatened to boycott an additional World Cup, he said he was looking for consensus and a broader role in a new international match schedule. The agreement for the current international tournament calendar will expire in 2024.
“We need to look at the merits of the sport and the economy, then we can have a reasoned discussion about the World Cup and maybe other competitions,” Infantino said.
Montagliani has shifted from the CONCACAF club competition group stage to the knockout stage and said the format for a new tournament should be discussed.
“It could be completely different from what the World Cup would be … another format we didn’t think could be exciting for fans,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link
