The world association (FIFA) wants to debate the controversial plan for hosting the World Cup every two years at the end of September.
On September 30th, the world association will debate with its member associations whether to hold a World Cup every two years. An online summit on the international game calendar will then take place, FIFA announced on Monday. “This is one of several opportunities to have a constructive and open debate at global and regional level over the coming months that FIFA looks forward to,” it said.
FIFA's mental games of possibly holding the World Cup every two years in the future had caused a lot of criticism, especially in Europe. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin threatened a boycott and called for a meeting with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino.
In a letter to Ceferin, the Association of European Football Coaches (AEFCA) also opposed the plans for a World Cup every two years. These have a “purely economic background” and are the “continuation of a whole series of unsuitable FIFA proposals,” wrote AEFCA President Walter Gagg in the letter that was available to the German Press Agency .
The German Football Association (DFB) sided with the European Football Union and emphasized that such a decision “must not be made without the consent of the European associations and European football”. It was “incomprehensible” that initially “so-called FIFA legends” and not the own council members were consulted, it said in a statement that the association published on Friday after its executive committee meeting.
The FIFA Technical Advisory Group headed by Director Arsène Wenger had proposed hosting the World Cup every two years. “As this is a football project in which the global interests of football must come first, this process began with players and coaches from all over the world,” said FIFA. The international game calendar for women and men will expire at the end of 2023 and 2024 respectively.
