Last year, FIFA President Infantino forced a plan to restructure the World Cup, intending to change the World Cup to a biennial event and trying to persuade countries to vote for the reform.
Now, due to the joint opposition of UEFA and South American Football Federation, Infantino's calculation has basically failed.
When UEFA President Ceferin talked about this matter in recent days, he said to the outside world in a tough manner: "FIFA has realized its mistake, and this plan is no longer within the scope of discussion. ”
In December last year, FIFA published its economic statistics report to 211 member associations around the world in order to gain support for restructuring.
According to the report, if the World Cup is changed from a quadrennial to a biennial one, the revenue generated will increase by 3.3 billion pounds, equivalent to 27.8 billion yuan. As a result, the world's 211 member associations will receive an additional £3 million a year, equivalent to more than RMB25 million.
FIFA President Infantino said FIFA would seek input from all sides to make the best decision.
As soon as Infantino's voice fell, UEFA was the first to jump out against the plan and take the same side as CONFEDA. At the same time, including a number of European football clubs, there are strong opposition to the plan, and the football associations of some countries have stated that if FIFA insists on going its own way, it will consider withdrawing from FIFA.
The reason why UEFA is tough is due to the restructuring of the World Cup, the five major European leagues, the Champions League and other competitions will lose at least 6.5 billion euros of commercial revenue in the broadcast rights transaction. This is a reform that touches on its fundamental interests, which UEFA is of course opposed.
It is reported that in this action against the restructuring, UEFA and SAAFA "hugged the group to warm up", the two in order to achieve the largest commercialization of the event, intends to start from 2024 to create a Euro-South American championship match, invited 10 member states of COMOF to participate in order to fight against fifa's monopoly.
"FIFA's restructuring plan should not harm the interests of football in Europe and South America," the ambitious UEFA president Ceferin said of the restructuring, taking a very tough attitude: "It is not that football on other continents cannot develop, but we should maintain coordination." For my part, the biennial World Cup is no longer in the discussion, and UEFA will soon reach a solution with FIFA. ”
The reason why Cheferin dared and FIFA was tough was to calculate FIFA's ledger accurately. Within the world football map, European football has almost monopolized 70% of the income of the world football economy. In other words, UEFA said it did not agree, FIFA could not do anything, coupled with Cheferin's joint South American shot this time, FIFA even if it really wants to change the system, it will have to wait for the right time.
"The Reform of the World Cup is decided by the Football Associations of the whole world, and it now seems that the current World Cup format (which is held every four years) will not change until 2028, even before 2030." WENGER, FIFA's director of global development, said.