FIFA DANGLES E300M ‘CARROT’ TO EFA

MBABANE – The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) is pulling all stops to have the World Cup every two years.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has now thrown a ‘sweetener’ of 16.8 million Euros (which at yesterday’s rate stood at E295.68 million) to each of the 211 member associations as an additional amount to the usual FIFA forward grant if the members agree to have the World Cup held every two years. FIFA currently gives out US$6 million (about E93 million) over a four-year period to each member association under the ‘FIFA Forward’ programme and over and above the additional E295 million, FIFA could increase the US$6 million grant to US$9 million (about E139.5 million) if the members approve the World Cup being held every two years.

In a statement released last Monday, published by several news agencies including the leading News-in-24 website, FIFA has pledged to each of its 211 members an additional US$19 million (about E295.68 million) to be spread over four years if it manages to double the frequency of the FIFA World Cup. “While the world is holding a ‘Mountain peak’ behind closed doors to re-launch its controversial reform of the international calendar beyond 2024, it threw into battle economic arguments that had not yet been quantified. If the World Cup is held every two years, instead of every four years since 1930 for men and 1991 for women, a study by the Nielsen cabinet commissioned by FIFA estimates the additional income of the tournament at 3.9 billion dollars over four years,” part of the report reads.

It states that: “Ticketing, TV rights and sponsorship would bring revenue from 6.2 billion euros – a projection linked to the passage of the Men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams from 2026 – to 10 billion, according to this study, whose methodology has not been unveiled.” The report further states that by a creating a new ‘Solidarity fund’ endowed with 3.1 billion euros (about E52.7 billion) over the first four years of the reform, FIFA, therefore, considers that it can allocate to each Federation ‘About $16 million’ (approximately E248 million) over this period. To this would be added a swelling of the current investment programme, called ‘FIFA Forward’ from $6 to $9 million per federation over the same four-year cycle.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s World Cup every two-years idea has been met with huge resistance from some of the top sporting organisations in the world like UEFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), some of Europe’s leading clubs, many of the top footballers in the world currently and national associations. But  it seems like Infantino is adamant about sticking with the plan to host the World Cup every two years as he now claims that apparently ‘younger generations’ want a World Cup more often than the current format of having one every four years.

“We cannot say to the rest of the world ‘It’s great, football is global, give us your money and watch us on TV.’ I understand that you know in some countries you have the World Cup twice per week because you have the best players in the world playing there. In other countries, regions even continents you don’t see the World Cup, you don’t see the best players in one life, in one generation,” Infantino was quoted by several news agencies last week. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) 52-members unanimously backed FIFA on the World Cup being held every two years during the 13th CAF Extra-ordinary meeting held in Egypt on November 27.

EFA Marketing and Communications Officer, Muzi Radebe said while they have not received any correspondence from FIFA on the issue they are aware of the feasible study the world governing body is conducting on the issue of the World Cup being held every two years. “The decision at the end of the day lies with FIFA. We will endorse it once FIFA has decided because we are aware FIFA has been researching on it for some time now,” Radebe said briefly last night.

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