The battles that are being settled for control of the football business have it on the verge of a world war, if it cannot already be considered started after the impulse that this week has gained the idea of FIFA to organize the Championship of the World of selections every two years and the frontal rejection shown by UEFA and the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol). The organization and occupation of the world calendar emerges as the main reason for the disputes. The dates of the competitions are the essential basis on which the exploitation of the broadcasting rights of football and its commercial derivatives such as advertising and marketing are negotiated, the three legs that sustain the football industry, fed in turn by the massive consumption by fans around the globe.Most of these attend with a frown on how the changes that are proposed to make football more attractive and profitable violate some of the customs and traditions that magnified the sport that hooked them.
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Schism for the transfer of the South American internationals
Football is lost without a pactist drive
The revolt of the English fans because the Super League was a closed and elitist competition was very significant.
The formula for a World Cup every two years has a point in common with both the Super League and the new Champions League format that will come into force in 2024: a greater number of clashes between the clubs and the most powerful teams that enhance the value of the product.
All intend to occupy more and better the calendar dates to increase their income.
The study of the project of a World Cup every two years was approved by the congress of the world organization last May with a vote of 166 votes in favor and 22 against. The plan, which can be ratified in 2022, involves reorganizing the aforementioned calendar of international competitions, under the authority of FIFA, to establish the qualification phases in one month, October of the year prior to the celebration of the World Cup. . The new periodicity of the World Cup would begin in 2028, two years after the one scheduled for 2026 in the United States and Mexico, but the idea has been rejected by UEFA and Conmebol, which this Thursday issued a statement in which it assured that "a Copa del Mundo every two years could distort the most important football competition on the planet, lowering its quality and undermining its exclusive character ”.
On Thursday, the president of UEFA, the Slovenian Alexander Ceferin, already threatened a boycott in an interview with
The Times
“We could decide not to play. As far as I know, the South Americans are on the same line ”. Paraguayan Alejandro Domínguez, president of Conmebol, had spoken out on several occasions in favor of the idea of FIFA. "This is one of the dreams that one has because it would bring many benefits," said Domínguez in 2018, designated at that time as one of the promoters of the World Cup every two years.
In recent months, however, Conmebol has forged an alliance with UEFA.
This is hostile to any international competition that forces it to share the television and advertising pie at a time when the sector takes for granted that the value of broadcasting rights has peaked and operators have begun to acquire them on the decline, as is the case with the English Premier League.
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Ceferin has the support of the continental leagues, which also see the value of their competitions threatened, and that of the European Club Association (ECA), chaired by Al-Khelaifi, PSG's top president. This body is no longer part of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, who are maintaining their particular legal battle for the Super League, which FIFA never saw with bad eyes despite having ruled against it. The war is total, crusade and global.
FIFA and the confederations where football is less developed as a sport and business (Asia, Africa, Oceania and Central America) aim for the World Cup every two years as an economic engine that improves infrastructure and raises the competitive level to consolidate the expansion and growth of football all over the world. To implement these policies, since he became president in 2016, the Swiss Gianni Infantino has had as his main objective that FIFA stop having only the World Cup as a major source of income every four years. This endeavor has already led to a crude confrontation with UEFA, which has been the breeding ground for the war unleashed now. Infantino intended to count every four years with the majority of the major European clubs to renew the annual and off Club World Cup.UEFA opposed it and since then the front between Infantino and Ceferin has not stopped. The former did not hesitate to sponsor the World Club Association, created and chaired by Florentino Pérez, when two years ago Ceferin backed down from his initial idea of establishing a Champions League format similar to the one presented by the Super League in April.
The reality is that UEFA, with its new Champions format, has increased its annual matches by 100 compared to the current system, with the creation of the League of Nations and the recently launched Conference League, a third division of its club competitions. and has had no problem reloading the calendar.
FIFA also maintains that its plan entails reducing the qualifying phase to one month and that this would avoid the disappointment of the clubs for giving up their players in four windows a year.
Conmebol has held four America Cups since 2015 when the periodicity is four years.
If there is an agreement, a new international calendar will emerge from this war.
If not, the current system is in jeopardy and the governance of world football is at stake.
The English clubs decide from this Saturday if they line up the South Americans
The refusal of English clubs to give up their South American internationals for this latest window of World Cup qualifying matches could lead to another schism for FIFA if they are lined up this weekend by their respective teams. The Premier League led the refusal, arguing that the British Government obliges all travelers from countries included in its red list for covid-19 to keep a 10-day quarantine. The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has been the most belligerent when filing a complaint with FIFA and has requested sanctions for the eight internationals who did not appear at their national team's matches and also for their clubs if they are aligned for this purpose of week. Alisson, Firmino and Fabinho (Liverpool), Ederson and Gabriel Jesús (Manchester City),Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Fred (Manchester United and Raphinha (Leeds United) are the Brazilian players who will be under the spotlight and who, according to FIFA regulations, cannot be aligned during the same time that the window of national team matches has lasted If they are alienated, the formal procedure says that the English federation will have to open a file and sanction them. Manchester City, United and Chelsea play today, while Leeds and Liverpool will face each other tomorrow.the formal procedure says that the English federation must open a file and sanction them. Manchester City, United and Chelsea play today, while Leeds and Liverpool will face each other tomorrow. The coach of thethe formal procedure says that the English federation must open a file and sanction them. Manchester City, United and Chelsea play today, while Leeds and Liverpool will face each other tomorrow. The coach of the
reds
, the German Jürgen Klopp, has prepared the game without them, but in England there is hope that FIFA will not sanction because it considers the English case to be different from the Spanish due to the quarantine.
In the case of Spanish clubs, the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sport forced them to be transferred.
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