Infantino believes majority support biennial World Cup
The FIFA president said he believes he has majority backing for his plan to make the World Cup happen every two years after discussion on revenue increase.
The initial opposition to FIFA president Gianni Infantino's plan for a biennial World Cup could have softened after a "global summit" was held Monday to discuss the proposal and its consequential raises in revenue.
Initial opposition to biennial World Cup
Several European cubs and top leagues as well as UEFA have stated their blatant opposition to Infantino's proposal. FIFA's survey did show a majority support, but within Europe, the support was less than half. UEFA warned that it raises "severe concerns over the sustainability of the plan for European associations" and that it could interfere with other sports.
The World Leagues Forum released a report last month that said the proposal could result in losses of up to 8 million euros for domestic soccer leagues and UEFA due to losses in TV rights and game-day commercial agreements. UEFA also recently published its own report that warned of European national federations losing significant revenue.
What the FIFA reports said about revenue
At the global summit meeting on Monday, Infantino presented a summary of a feasability study, and explained to the leaders that his plan would create an additional $4.4 billion in revenue for the world body. It showed that the domestic leagues and UEFA competitions would not be hurt financially by the biennial plan.
Infantino confident in support of biennial plan
"If I was going to vote tomorrow, probably the majority would vote in favor of a World Cup every two years," said Infantino. A vote is not yet scheduled and Infantino said the whole calendar needs to be looked at in order to understand how to organize it all in the best way for soccer and the future of the game.
Arsene Wenger, head of global development for FIFA, stated that the opposition to the plan comes from emotions rather than logic. "We have to get over this fear, because most of the emotions that we face are based on fear," Wenger said. "Fear to lose control of your own competition, which is not a right."
Infantino said that FIFA would continue the discussion and analysis and hope to find some common ground to move the plan forward.