FIFA criticized for increasing the number of teams participating in the Club World Cup

According to British newspaper Sportmail, FIFA has been actively lobbying to organize a new version of the Club World Cup through many negotiations that have taken place in Qatar in the past few weeks. But the clubs all refused.

FIFA also hoped to reach this agreement at the meeting of the European Club Association (ECA) - an organization representing the interests of 220 leading European clubs - in Doha on December 9. However, FIFA President Gianni Infantino withdrew at the last minute, realizing that the two sides would not find a common voice.

And in response, FIFA then refused to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ECA, even though the current agreement expires on December 31. MoU is an agreement between FIFA and clubs regarding the international match schedule, the date players join the team and the amount paid to the host club. If a new agreement is not signed, in theory, clubs can temporarily refuse to release players to play internationally with the team at the next gathering in March 2023.

According to the current format, the Club World Cup has seven participating teams, including the championship clubs of the region (Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, CONCACAF and the host country club). . In the immediate future, the 2022 Club World Cup will still be held in the old format. However, due to coincident with the 2022 World Cup, the tournament was postponed to February 2023 and was held in Morocco.

UEFA opposes the tournament, which it sees as a threat to the primacy of the Champions League. But according to Sportmail, clubs may be convinced by FIFA's new project with huge profits, amid rumors that FIFA is willing to pay nearly $ 200 million in bonuses.

However, ECA wants to address concerns about players constantly having to work because of the club and international schedule, before participating in the new FIFA tournament. The Premier League's chief executive, Richard Masters, has opposed fundamental changes to the international schedule - a view supported by many of Europe's top clubs. "The Premier League is committed to preventing any fundamental changes to the fixture schedule that could adversely affect the well-being of players and threaten the competition, fixture, structure and tradition of football. rock in the water," he said.

On Twitter, Carragher criticized FIFA for coming up with another "ridiculous" idea, following the proposal to hold the World Cup every two years. He wants European clubs to boycott this new tournament. "Players need rest. They are being treated like cattle. FIFA hates the Champions League and wants something similar," the former Liverpool defender added.

FIFA does not have much time left if they want to organize a new version of the Club World Cup from 2025, when they have not yet announced the format, organization cycle, specific time of the year, how to choose a club or discuss with the players. broadcasters and commercial partners.

FIFA wants this new version of the tournament to be held for the first time in the US in 2025, a test event for the following year's World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico. FIFA also wants to host an expanded Club World Cup every four years in place of the existing annual event, which has attracted little interest outside of South America.

Also in the press conference on December 16, Infantino praised Qatar 2022 as the best World Cup in history and said that the level of football was higher. He attributed this to the fact that the tournament is held in the middle of the season, instead of in the summer like previous World Cups, when "players have to play at the end of a tiring season".

The head of FIFA also left open the possibility of changing the group stage format with each group of three teams applied for the 2026 World Cup. Accordingly, the tournament will still have 48 teams, but will take place in the format of 12 groups with each group. four-team table, instead of 16 tables with three teams each as originally planned. "We will recalculate after seeing the exciting World Cup in Qatar and the success of the four-team format. The groups are fantastic, competitive and emotional until the last minute. We will Let's discuss the format at the next meetings, maybe 12 pounds with four teams each," Infantino said.