“I think they will eventually sign the peace. But only in view of the World Cup in Qatar. First, for at least a year, they'll beat each other up." Romy Gay, head of Juventus marketing for 14 years, sees it this way the confrontation/clash between FIFA and UEFA, or the two top institutions that share the cake of football rights, the richest and most followed sport on the planet. But also the most indebted and divided by clan rather than by club.
The war between Fifa, the world federation led by Gianni Infantino, Italian-Swiss lawyer, and the UEFA of Alexander Ceferin, Slovenian, also a lawyer, officially broke out after a thousand skirmishes, last weekend on the initiative of one of the noble fathers of soccer: the French Arsene Wenger, former coach guru of Arsenal, at the beginning of the millennium defined by historian Eric Hobsbawm as one of the great inspirers of globalization for his ability to merge the many spirits and personalities of football into one team. It was he, in the guise of "world football development director" (a role assigned to him by Fifa) who launched from Doha, the capital of the next World Cup, the gauntlet: “We have decided to reorganize the international calendar of matches – he said alongside champions such as the Brazilian Ronaldo and Peter Schmeichel, the legendary Danish goalkeeper – because 166 countries have asked us to organize the World Cup every two years. Let's see if we can change it or not because we are in a democracy, but I am convinced that my plan is the right one".
A diktat, only apparently diplomatic, which has the flavor of an ultimatum: in addition to the World Cup every two years, Fifa proposes that, starting from 2024, the matches of the national teams are concentrated in October-November or in October and March. The rest of the year, except for the holidays granted to athletes for part of July, must be left to the clubs they belong to. There will thus be space to play i World Cup every two years starting in 2028. In odd years, however, there will be room for the European Championships, the African Cup and South America. And, as Wenger underlined, it is not a plan developed at the table, but the fruit of a planetary consultationconducted with the reserve that great conspiracies deserve.
Yes, because Wenger's mission touched all the capitals of football, but he carefully avoided the UEFA headquarters, from which Ceferin's poisonous torpedoes shoot off who, moreover, convinced as he is that Infantino has a hand behind the attempted secession of the SuperLega, prefers to shoot against the rebels of Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid . “I wouldn't mind – he told Der Spiegel on the same day of Wenger's departure – if these clubs left. It's very funny that they want to create a new competition and at the same time they want to play in the Champions League. They have simply incompetent managers. They are people who have tried to kill football."
A somewhat insane sortie if one considers it, as he underlined Carlos Ancelotti. "that it is strange to call the president of a club like Real Madrid incompetent, which has won 13 Champions League". And what about a federation president who hopes that his most prestigious associates will leave in order to save his seat? His real supporter is more diplomatic, Nasser Al Khelaifi, the president of Paris Saint Germain, braised to lead the 200 and more professional European clubs (the Eca) after the disastrous fall of Andrea Agnelli, struck by the retreat of the English teams from the super League. "Nobody has asked us yet," the Qatari leader told the Financial Times, the real beneficiary of the great disorder. Thanks to the problems of others, the PSG was able to buy up champions at an absolute bargain price disregard of the principle of fair play (suspended, however to be reviewed, Ceferin zealously assures)) considerably increasing the chances of victory in the Champions 2022, the most precious spot before the World Cup in Qatar. Also because, in the midst of so much controversy, little is said about victims of the Doh shipyardsa, forced to work at 50 degrees and more for wages often lower than what was agreed.
At the moment, we do not see the possible compromise between the big names who compete for a very rich cake. The France-Croatia final of the 2018 World Cup was watched by 1,1 billion viewers. The tournament has mobilized more than 6 billion euros in sponsorships and royalties of various kinds. But, according to experts, these figures could even double if the 48-team competition after the last reform is improved in the name of entertainment. At risk, however, UEFA fears, of impoverishing the Champions League, the other goose that lays golden eggs. Without forgetting that the clash between the two lawyers has generated many useless competitions with the sole aim of making money, with the risk of inflating the season, as Wenger says. "The current timetable is not sustainable. In September there is already a first break, in October the second, in November the third and in March the fourth window. In June the last window and in July the new season begins. All this is too much”.
Of course, it is not said that the Fifa formula is necessarily the best, even if it has the merit of bringing the Champions to agreement ("it is certainly better to have the opportunity to win the World Cup every two years" confesses Ronaldo) and also the needs of the weaker federations, those that will never win a World Cup. Like the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Bangladesh, countries that do not delude themselves of participating in the final phase but which, in a joint statement, have asked for "more World Cups to offer young talents the chance to emerge", perhaps with the shirt of another national team.
How will it end? The game of football is too serious to sink under the maneuvers of lawyers. But a sensational divorce cannot be ruled out. The World Cup, after all, is the result of a sensational split at the time. In 1927 the International Olympic Committee decided to exclude soccer from the Los Angeles Olympics, given the non-existent following of soccer in the United States. And the president of the federation, the French Jules Rimet responded by launching, with a certain courage, the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay.
