PostedSeptember 30, 2021, 06:00
When he coached Arsenal, Wenger often criticized the rallies of the national teams. But now he’s defending a World Cup every two years.
Arsène Wenger is now director of world football development at FIFA.
Pool via REUTERS
“Selection football is boring,” said Arsène Wenger in February 2007. Now director of world football development at FIFA, he promotes a World Cup every two years as part of an overhaul of international competitions. “What people want to see today are high-stakes, easy-to-understand competitions,” he said in early September.
But he did not spare his criticism of the national selections when he was the indestructible coach of Arsenal (1996-2018). The 71-year-old Alsatian has changed his positions in three decades. Anthology of his statements on the subject.
“Reduce the number of countries” in the qualifiers
In October 2006, after the victory of the French team against the Faroe Islands (5-0) in qualifying for Euro 2008:
“In the qualifying stages, you have groups of seven or eight teams. And there have only been four matches played, there are eight left. The number of countries participating in the qualifications must be reduced. It would be wise to make groups of four or five. ”
“Selection football has regressed”
In the daily “The Daily Telegraph”, in February 2007, after a defeat of England against Spain in a friendly match (1-0):
“Selection football is boring and has gone downhill. You have to accept it. When you coach a club, you can find players from all over the world. Nationally, you can only use the players you have. Whenever England doesn’t win it’s always my fault, even when I’m not at the game. We are in a world where you have to be good. If England want to beat Brazil, then the young English player who comes to Arsenal has to be better than the Brazilian. ”
“Henry badly supervised by the France team”
In March 2007, after the groin injury of French striker Thierry Henry during a Champions League match against PSV Eidhoven:
“I don’t feel responsible for that because I think Thierry Henry was poorly supervised by the France team. The World Cup final was on July 9 and I gave it time off until August 4. Then he came back and we got him ready. I exempted him from the Champions League qualifying match against Dinamo Zagreb. But they called him back on August 16 – less than 14 days after his return from Germany – and they played him the whole game against Bosnia. After the World Cup final, why did they need to do this? ”
Diaby injured in Blue: “A mistake to align him”
October 2012, after a qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup against Finland (1-0), with a goal from Arsenal midfielder, Abou Diaby:
“It was a mistake to field him against Finland. They could call him without playing him. This guy was injured for a year and only played four or five games. This international break gave him a two-week break to fully recover. ”
48 countries at the 2026 World Cup: “It’s reasonable”
In the newspaper “Le Parisien”, on March 3: “2026 is the year of a World Cup in the United States. There will be 48 countries, it’s crazy. Yes, but when we think in terms of percentage, we realize that it is reasonable. The national team is the only real motivation for a country to do something to change the structure of football in the country, to raise its level of play, to develop football.
“Make football better”
On September 23, in the BBC’s “The Sports Desk” podcast, about the overhaul of the international calendar he outlined to “L’Equipe” earlier this month:
“I want to make football better. Reducing international windows will benefit clubs and players. As a former Arsenal manager, I have always believed that the separation between international competition and club competition is not good enough. The season will not be divided into several gatherings, which I may have suffered ”as a coach.
(AFP)
