When he was the irremovable manager of Arsenal, Arsène Wenger was not a big fan of selection football. Sweet understatement. But that was before the Alsatian, now 71, became the director of world football development at Fifa in November 2019. Today, Wenger is teeming with ideas and proposes an overhaul of the calendar with a shocking idea, formulated this Friday
in The team : organize a World Cup every two years, and continental championships also every two years.
In other words, we would alternate each year between a Euro (as well as a CAN, a Copa America, etc.) and a World Cup. The technician explains: “I want to improve the frequency of competitions by being guided by simplicity, the clarity of the calendar and the desire to only engage in competitions which have a real meaning, and which are those which allow improvement. the level of football. “
Promised, the clubs would not allow the change. No more endless back and forth, sometimes very distant, of internationals to play eliminatory matches: there would be only two qualifying windows per year, in October and March, with fewer matches than today. It will still be necessary to keep the non-international players (the majority of the pros in fact) occupied during these two months without a championship, but that’s another story.
A response to a request from the company?
The idea of organizing a World Cup every two years has already been mentioned for some time by Fifa, led by Gianni Infantino. But sworn, spat, it is not to earn even more money by increasing the competitions. If Wenger “fully understands” the traditionalists attached to the rhythm of a great event every four years, “it must be recognized that society is demanding more and more games with high stakes and high emotion, and more and more. often “.
While the international calendar is frozen until 2024, the revolution would not begin according to the old emblem of the Gunners until 2028, two years after the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. UEFA is against the project, but other confederations, such as CAF (Africa) are in favor, according to The team.