SOCCER
Which changes to world soccer has PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi’s played a role in?
Al-Khelaïfi’s relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino has had an impact on the relationship between clubs and world soccer’s governing body.
Things have changed in the most recent conversations between FIFA and the European Club Association (ECA), the body which represents the professional soccer clubs belonging to UEFA. During the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the two organisations appeared to be at odds with one another but tensions have eased of late, largely thanks to ECA chairman Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who is also the president of Paris Saint-Germain. His mediation with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has been essential for the two to find some middle ground related to key issues.
What is the FIFA-ECA Memorandum of Understanding?
One of those is the release of players for international duty. FIFA and the ECA have been unable to reach an agreement on the Memorandum of Understanding, which laid out the conditions about when clubs must release their internationals but expired at the end of 2022. However, a new agreement is close to being announced which will be more financially beneficial for clubs than the previous one. Details of the agreement could be made public at the FIFA Congress in Rwanda on 16 March or at the ECA General Assembly in Istanbul 11 days later.
Clubs will not be able to obstruct their players from going on international duty, which they were legally able to do without an agreement in place. With the first FIFA window of the year coming up at the end of March, agreeing a new deal was a matter of urgency. The new agreement will see clubs receive substantially more compensation for sending their players to their national teams. For a long time, the general feeling had been that the money received by clubs for doing so was not in accordance to FIFA’s revenue from international soccer.
What is the ‘new’ FIFA Club World Cup?
The improvement in the relationship of the two organisations has also led to changes in another area, namely the FIFA Club World Cup. FIFA announced the new 32-team format with great fanfare, explaining how much teams from each of the different confederations would take part, even though no agreement had been reached with clubs.
Once the Memorandum of Understanding has been signed and the finances are known, it will be much more likely that the ECA and UEFA are prepared to send their top teams to the tournament. British newspaper The Times has revealed that FIFA’s first proposal for the new competition wil see the four most recent Champions League winners and the eight top teams in the UEFA rankings take part, with a limit of two per country.
Al-Khelaïfi has had an increasingly important role in the organisation of world soccer, particularly in the fight against the European Super League. And the PSG president hopes to use his power to make absolutely sure that Infantino and FIFA are also against the creation of the ESL, which they have previously stated publicly. The fear for UEFA and the ECA is that their thinking being closed doors may be different.