FIFA International Match Calendar: Proposed Changes & General Discussion

I disagree with having the World Cup every two years.

I disagree with reducing the number of home matches.

I disagree with expanding the Club World Cup.

 

I would have a lot of fun watching a World Cup every two years.
Expanded Club World Cup would be fun too as long as it rotates Confederations and is not stuck in one part of the world.

 

They key would be to reduce or get rid of qualifiers. That's why I suggested using the continental championships are de facto qualifiers.

Conversely, with the World Cup expanding to 48 teams, you could move the continental championships to the summer prior to the World Cup and use them as WC qualifiers.

UEFA (16 spots) = all R16 teams qualify from Euros

CONCACAF (6 spots) = 4 semifinalists qualify from Gold Cup, plus 2 from playoff among losing quarterfinalists

CONMEBOL (6 spots) = 4 semifinalists qualify from Copa America, plus 2 from playoff among losing quarterfinalists

Asia (8 spots) = 8 quarterfinalists from Asian Cup

Africa (9 spots) = 8 quarterfinalists from African Nations Cup + 1 from playoff amongst losing R16 teams

Bottom line is that there is NO way you can fit in two WCs, a continental championship, and three sets of qualifiers in a four-year cycle.

 

Then you are no longer getting the best teams from each region competing for the World Cup, since knockout tournaments are really poor at ranking teams compared to a round-robin tournament like we have now in every region. And all for what? A watered-down version of the old Confederations' Cup? Cost/benefit ratio is all out of whack here.

But I think there is definitely scope to shorten the WC qualifying, especially in CONCACAF and AFC since a lot more teams will be qualifying.

 

The other thing to bear in mind is that - after becoming the first confederation to back the WC every 2 years idea in advance of the feasibility study being published - CAF have reiterated that they intend to hold their Cup of Nations every 2 years whatever interval there is between WCs.

 

I'd debate that assertion.

Knockout matches are obviously subject to more random fluctuations, but round-robin tournaments suffer from having uneven groups due to the random luck of the ping-pong balls.

 

You're assuming there is more than one group, which isn't the case in CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. AFC qualifying has two groups but that's way less than the eight pairings in their confederation championship, where 2 top teams could be paired together early on just by bad luck.

And, yes, 1 knockout game will create alot more randomness than a long round-robin. Also the fact that you have 1 or 2 host countries tilts the playing field heavily. It all but guarantees you a WC spot just by being a host.

 

I presume this is to make it more palatable to the clubs. We're adding an extra WC, which means your players will have more extracurricular "work" during their summer breaks, but in exchange we will make it so that they will have fewer distractions during the season and can focus more exclusively on club play.

What does this mean exactly? How would you complete qualification in 7 games?

The only way this makes sense is if you use a Nations League-style format with only teams from the top tiers being eligible to qualify. With a WC every 2 years instead of 4, I suppose not being eligible for the next year's WC would be slightly less of a blow given you can become eligible for the next one in a four-year cycle with a promotion.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of reducing the number of qualifying games, but on the other hand the quality of the games that are played would go up - no more Germany vs San Marino + players are together longer when they do play internationals - and, hey, there's another WC for me to watch!

 

Wenger hates the Nations League as a standalone because he thinks it's Mickey Mouse.

What I was describing above was essentially just tiered WC qualifiers. The point is that qualifying matches should be against meaningful opposition and should do the best job possible of actually qualifying the best teams.

It's not in my view important that every team has a theoretical chance of qualifying. In a tiered league format, minnows that get better can rise organically through the tiers and get a chance to play for a WC spot when they actually have some realistic chance of earning one. No one gains anything from the exercise of having Andorra play Belgium. I'd rather focus on actual organic football development than maintaining the optics of letting all these no-hopers who never do anything and never improve play for a WC spot.

Streamlining the qualifying process just happens to be the perfect pretense to do what should have been done in the first place anyway.

 

I don't think we can introduce biennial World Cups without significant changes to the International calendar. I'm not opposed to the idea, but am struggling to see how it would work. I think FIFA need to put some more flesh on the idea. At the moment it just looks like a brain fart.

 

If FIFA were still being led by Sepp Blatter I would assume that the police were about to raid one of the confederations heads and he wanted to have a distraction already up and running.

Maybe that's too clever for Gianni however.

J

 

The reality is that what makes sense from a footballing perspective is irrelevant from a political perspective.

Because of FIFA's one country/one vote system, small countries which are largely irrelevant from a footballing perspective (fewer than 80 of FIFA's 200+ members have ever qualified for the World Cup) have far more political power than the countries which are powers on the football field.

That's why the World Cup was expanded to 48 teams.

And the small countries want a World Cup every two years for the simple reason that it will mean twice as much TV $$$ flowing into the pockets of their corrupt leaders.

My prediction is that if FIFA pushes this through, UEFA, CONMEBOL, and the US/Mexico will withdraw from FIFA and start a new footballing organization.

 

I don't know if I'd call it a brain fart. 90% of FIFA revenue comes from the WC so it is obvious why they want twice as many of them. Of course, nobody else wants this that I know of. Most notably, CONMEBOL and UEFA are strongly against it, so let's see how much $$ Gabon v Panama in a WC gets FIFA.

The players are likely to also be against it. They may not have an official vote on the matter, but politically that is a problem for £I£A.

The fact that they make this proposal around the same time of the expanded Club WC kinda shows their desperation. Or maybe it's just a strategy to make it look like a compromise when they give up on biennial WC idea and settle for the CWC . Surely even they must know its one or the other (or neither). Not really feasible for both. They haven’t even found space to schedule the CWC in the current calendar.

 

That would be amazing.

 

I thought you liked FIFA?

 

When did I ever say that?

 

All jokes aside, why do you think having another organization usurp FIFA’s authority would be a good thing?

 

I never said that either.

I am just drooling while day dreaming about Tournaments composed of the best European teams, South American Teams, USA and Mexico.

 

Fair play, I like to do that too.

My fear is that in practice an alternate global football governing organization if it ever happened would just end up being a front for the big Euro clubs though.

 

I like this idea/think it's the way to go.
However, I also would be against a World Cup every 2 years, as I think that waters things down/ultimately does decrease the appeal a bit.

On the other hand, having the World Cup once every four years does limit the opportunities for some great players to play in one (timing of injuries or quality o home nation), especially for those playing for teams outside the top 15 or 20.

I'd really like to see them have the World Cup every 3 years (and confederation championships). year 1 - round 1 WC qualifying doubling as confederation championship qualifying. Year 2 - confederation championship, Year 3 World Cup.

I know everyone is 'used to' having things in even numbered years, and they may not want to overlap the Olympics. I personally don't think they should bother with Soccer in the Olympics/so wouldn't care about that, and think every 3 years would be the perfect balance.

 

The issue isn’t Olympic soccer, the issue is FIFA and the IOC not wanting to “compete” with each other by having events the same summer.

Granted the Summer Olympics already “compete” with the Euros (and now the Copa America, FWIW) but the WC might be a bridge too far. Although it would only be every 12 years, or once every 4 editions, that the World Cup would conflict with the Summer Olympics.