By Mohamad Abadi | Staff Writer
Earlier this year, the footballing world erupted when plans for the Super League were announced by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. As a response to that, fans were protesting and football legends were demanding for actions to be taken to stop it. FIFA and UEFA were quick to react and labelled Florentino Perez as a money-hungry businessman who does not care about the fans or the players. Moreover, fast forward to May 2021, Gianni Infantio, the FIFA president, announces that they accepted the proposal of Saudi Arabia to hold a World Cup every two years, as they will be further exploring and studying the idea. In fact, Arsene Wenger, the legendary French manager, has labelled this idea as the right way, moving forward for the sport and he expects a resolution by December.
The World Cup is arguably the most special tournament across all sports. The beauty and magic behind this tournament arises from the impatient fans having to wait a long time to experience it. Also, the players hold it to a different standard because they take pride in representing their country on the biggest stage, especially since the chance of playing in such a tournament does not come often. The memories that the fans hold on for years is what keeps the World Cup exciting. The World Cup is a means of connecting the players with their fans. Making it more common will take away this somewhat special and unique bond. This concern was voiced by Philip Lahm, the German and Bayern Munich legend, as he claimed, “A World Cup every two years would finally kill football’s golden goose”.
The main argument behind holding a Biennial World Cup is simple: more money. According to statistics from FIFA’s official website, their revenue is highly dependent on the World Cup as they experience losses three years out of four while making it all up in World Cup years. They earned around $6.4 billion from the year 2017 till 2020, and over 70% of that came from the 2018 tournament. Infantino’s plan is to take advantage of broadcasting deals and advertisements to further increase the profits. However, there is the risk that the fans will lose interest if they get too much international football since the competition is not as balanced as club football. There will be several games that will be boring to watch, since Infantino is also planning on increasing the nations involved in the tournament.
Last but not least, the players will suffer mentally and physically. The pandemic had a huge impact on football as a congested schedule was needed to wrap up the 2020 season, which was immediately followed by the 2021 season. Injuries have massively increased as the players experience increased muscle fatigue. Additionally, players and managers have come out several times and complained about the amount of games being played and how the football federations are not concerned with the health of players. “If you play that every two years, mentally it’s tough,” as Thierry Henry, who played in seven tournaments for France, said as a response to Infantino’s idea. “I came out of them shattered mentally” (The Guardian). Henry is thus expressing the difficulty and pressure that players go through as a result of having to shine in major tournaments and representing their country on an international level. Consequently, putting more pressure on already overworked players is dangerous.
FIFA will need support from all the football associations for this plan to actually work and get implemented. Luckily for football fans, UEFA does not support a Biennial World Cup; however, the African and Asian federations backed FIFA’s idea, hence UEFA will need support from elsewhere to stop this plan from going into motion. The international calendar up until 2026 is set, so seeing the earliest we could see this plan in action would be 2032. Until then fans and UEFA are urged to keep fighting to save the beautiful game from money-hungry businessmen.