Fifa’s chief of football Arsene Wenger has a proposal to make the World Cup an event that is held every two years instead of it’s four year cycle.

Wenger’s idea has been met with plenty of criticism from associations all over the world (Source: BBC Sport).

But the legendary French manager has stated:

“The World Cup every four years was decided in the 1930s and it should not just carry on because of tradition. The Champions League is played every year and retains its prestige. This would be the same.”

Via The Mirror

I don’t think the Champions League has the same prestige it did when it was first founded and certainly doesn’t have the same as the European Cup had.

When it just had champions in the competition, in my opinion, it was better. The Champions League is now weighted towards the bigger leagues/sides and there are far too many games.

The best thing about a World Cup, for me, is the anticipation and the tradition you get with it.

Even though I’m Scottish and having more teams would help us out, I think having thirty-two nations is the right number and it shouldn’t be enlarged further.

The advent of the internet and the growth of club football as a super global enterprise has already diluted the impact of the World Cup.

I look back with a lot of fondness to the World Cups of the nineties. A big factor in that was the surprise talent and teams you’d see in those tournaments.

You don’t get that now because the internet gives you instant access and European clubs snap up the world’s best talent at young ages, so we now see the best young South Americans and Africans in Europe very early now.

I do agree with Wenger that the international calendar could be altered and less travelling time for players would be a good thing but not with a biannual World Cup.

I’ve liked the introduction of the Nations League by Uefa. For me, I’d just dump friendlies.

My international calendar would be World Cup qualifiers, Nations League, Euro qualifiers or confederation equivalent plus the two major tournaments. Instead of friendlies I’d go with B teams playing the day before one or two qualifiers a year as a way to get less experienced players used to the international stage.

I also don’t buy Wenger’s ‘it will generate more money for grassroots football’. Fifa always has a very hefty bank balance and they’ve never spent enough on youth football and I don’t believe that will change.

Here’s hoping that the clubs, associations and confederations have the strength to kick this proposal back into the long grass!

Posted on September 10th, 2021 by scott
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