A global League of Nations and the Club World Cup as envisioned by FIFA These are the alternatives that gain more strength as the days go by with respect to the change in the configuration of the world football calendar. The decision is not going to be taken these days in Doha, but I know that it is already on the agenda of all the players in the world of football. A World Cup every two years would mean too much wear and tear for everyone and the main alternative is to rethink the League of Nations and raise the UEFA project to all the confederations.
The draw for the World Cup monopolizes almost all the news in Qatar. However, the reform of the calendar that FIFA proposed months ago is still present in the roadmap of the highest body in the world of football. It does not appear on the agenda of the congress that will take place on Thursday morningbut I do know that it is present in the conversations held by the leaders of the different federations.
The option that is gaining more strength, as Marca anticipated weeks ago, is that of carry out a League of Nations at a global level, in which all the confederations participate and that it could be an intermediate and key step to reach an agreement between all the parties. It is the alternative that today appears first in the order of preference in the calendar change, which will take effect in 2024.
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urgent approval
The competition would become part of the new scenario that all stakeholders in the world of football are forced to approve with some urgency. A World Cup every two years has not been well received on all sides and the dialogue is leading to somewhat recovering what was the old Conference Cup, expanded to include more teams.
As for the Club World Cup project was forgotten as a result of the pandemic, but the project is still standing. There was talk at the time of 24 clubs, but now it remains to be defined if the competition would follow the same structure proposed in its day.
The first edition of this revamped Club World Cup was to take place in China in 2021. Everything was paralyzed by the pandemic, but the idea will be recovered within the negotiating framework that all the parties involved are having.
before end of at
The idea is that the new calendar be approved before the end of 2022. There is nothing definitive, but the present arrangement is that each year a great competition takes place. Starting from the World Cup, it would be followed by the Global League of Nations, European Championship and the rest of the confederation titles, to close the circle with the Club World Cup.
What seems ruled out is to concentrate the national team matches for a month in the middle of the season. The idea has not caught on. On the one hand, the coaches prefer to have more extensive contact with the players during the year and, on the other, the national team matches serve as an economic framework for the federations. What will probably happen is to reduce the FIFA dates reserved for the elections, going from five to four.
