Football is gradually slipping away from the hands of the fans and the players are at the mercy of the organisations that run competitions for their clubs and national teams.
A new proposal to reshape the international calendar has been in the news lately and one of the key changes is hosting the FIFA World Cup every two years as against the current four-year period.
Former Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger, who is now FIFA’s chief of global football development, is championing the new World Cup idea, and FIFA wants a major change to the international calendar to accommodate it.
But The Daily Mail reports that he has suffered a major setback in his bid to achieve that as the proposal has been rejected by European clubs.
European Leagues managing director Jacco Swart says the proposal will create too much shift in the balance of things as it stands now.
They are open to a change, but they insist it should be ‘as limited changes as possible.’
This comes as a major blow to Wenger’s plans, but I wonder why he would want such a drastic change to the footballing calendar.
One reason for that could be because Wenger has always been an innovator and he would always want to make changes everywhere he goes.
Even football fans and players haven’t exactly warmed up to the idea of having a World Cup every two years, considering that everyone likes to wait and look forward to it every four years.
We may not have heard the last of this proposal and it would be interesting to see what Wenger does next.
Wenger is very loyal to the people he works for, that doesn’t make him right in what he does and says.
Maybe Wenger is simply trying to fend off the new Super League or conversely some how promote the Super league? Its all political posturing. Personally I can’t be bothered with even one World Cup. Many of the Nations have no traditional rivalry and the years of qualifiers go on too long and many of the qualifiers are farcically lop sided.
Overall though It does raise the question of when is enough football “enough”? Football in Europe is played every week probably every day of the year some where. Pre season from July, League season from August to May, domestic cups, CL/EL/Conference, and International qualifiers. International Tournaments every June with the Nations cup added. The 12 month schedule is crazy and only to attract more and more advertisng revenue to pay the relatively small number of elite footballers their vast obscene salaries. Is it because some billionaire owners want a better return on their investment? Yet some trillionaire owners hardly need adverising money. Some form of “correction” is required.
I just wish Whinger Wenger would shut up.
He’s a pain in the Arse.