Sunday 12th September 2021
Unpleasant people everywhere
Gianni Infantino loves football (not)
By Tobias Nordmann
The World Cup every two years – can it go well? FIFA Director Arsène Wenger and a number of ex-stars praise the idea and emphasize the advantages. On the other hand, there is clear criticism from the Bundesliga – a broad front of resistance is forming. A man doesn’t care.
There are people who think that’s really good! Josep Guardiola is one of them. Now the situation with the Catalans is like this: Guardiola thinks a lot of things are good. And he thinks even more things are great. At least that’s what he says. Does he really think so? Not clear. He does not always act according to his words. What he really likes at the moment is FIFA’s idea of having the soccer World Cup played every two years. Those who still like this idea: greedy association bosses from Africa and Asia. A few oligarchs and other people with a lot of power and money.
Guardiola thinks “the world championship is great”. And because that is the case, it would be “good” if you could watch this tournament “every two years.” Is it really like that? There are (very many) people who see it differently. Jürgen Klopp is one of them. And when he is asked about this, the man from Liverpool FC gets angry. A lot. “When people sit together at the associations, they should think about the game itself – and not just about their profit,” he complains. And of course it’s about the money. And exclusively.
It gets hectic in Wattenscheid
Because where in the world is the longing for even more football so great that there should be twice as many World Cups in the future? These places will already exist. They are “hidden places”. Isolated from the mega-offer that the sport has in store for its followers. More and more competitions, more and more clubs, more and more games, increasingly rugged game plans – the search for a time window in which the ball does not roll for a long time is extremely tedious. And with the idea of FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and his followers, the last large window is now to be knocked out and the gap filled with football.
Of course, that creates stress. After all, the flower boxes in Wattenscheid and the rest of the country now have to be reforested twice as often with flags, pennants and garlands. But well, it works! A little tip: just let it hang. All this stuff isn’t going to be bad.
All those who are now worried that the continental championships will go hungry and fall by the wayside, fear will be relieved: In even years, according to the plan, the world championships will be played, in odd tournaments like the European Championship and Copa America . And the EM, so the idea of FIFA, should like to follow suit and also be played every two years. Football up to vomiting. Even now the madness, which takes at least eleven months of the year, can no longer be consumed and no longer digested. That Fifa believes that it can treat the obesity of the followers with even more food is very strange. But it is – you hardly want to write it any more – the next receipt of hospitality for it, which is lived and thought excessively on the level of the most powerful. One reaction to this: “I think the idea is completely wrong,” says Borussia Mönchengladbach’s sports director Max Eberl: “I think it’s complete nonsense to discuss such topics at such a time.” Infantino doesn’t care.
Wenger has the solution
It’s the next attack on the soul of sport. FIFA can still, and for a long time, rely on the game to beat the criticism and anger at the wild demeanor, but it cannot: let the enthusiasm of the fans grow exponentially. Somehow, the level has finally been reached that turns euphoria into indifference. Even this summer it was not always easy to motivate yourself for all European Championship games. And how will that be when 48 teams compete against each other in Canada, the USA and Mexico from 2026? As nice as it is to enjoy and suffer with the outsiders, where does that lead when suddenly half of the field is an outsider?
And then the tournament itself will be devalued. Screwed up a World Cup? No problem, there will be another chance soon! The most important title in the world of football becomes arbitrary. For the players too. And what about them? The complaints are already massive. The footballers rarely get breaks, which increases the risk of (serious) injuries. The coaches complain that they hardly have the opportunity to work with the entire squad. And that is no longer the problem for the industry giants. With a competition like the Conference League, more and more clubs have access to the international cups.
Now Arsene Wenger, the legendary ex-coach of Arsenal London and one of the masterminds behind the new World Cup idea, advertises that there should be no more games in total. In the game calendar, fixed periods of rest should be planned for the professionals and fewer trips will be necessary due to significantly fewer, but longer periods of absence for international matches. One option is that the leagues are only interrupted in October and November before the tournaments are not due again until the summer.
Infantino’s greed makes Blatter forget
Now the resistance against the plans is (still) very great. UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin threatened FIFA with a boycott. Other organizations such as the European Club Association (ECA), associations of leagues in Europe (European Leagues) and worldwide (World Leagues Forum) as well as several fan associations are also defending themselves. Representing this protest movement, Ceferein says: “The value lies precisely in the fact that the World Cup is held every four years.” The South American confederation CONMEBOL has already raised its voice. The plan could “distort the most important football competition in the world, reduce its quality and undermine its exclusive character and its current high standards.” The World Cup every two years is also “extremely unprofitable”. The CONMEBOL therefore supports “the current World Cup model”.
The fact that the UEFA boss of all people seems to be the spearhead is also rather strange. Just a few months ago, Ceferin and Co. decided to inflate the Champions League from 2024. And then the third European Cup was just introduced.
Well, the matter is “only” like that. Fifa is carrying out a feasibility study on a two-year idea – open-ended, of course. But when it comes to Infantino, the presumably greedy Fifa boss of all time (which, according to Sepp Blatter, was hardly thought possible), then there should be a decision by the end of the year. You can guess how it will turn out. And you can imagine how happy he will be sitting in the stands between sheikhs and oligarchs.
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