Gianni Infantino’s new FIFA wants to mark a genuine change in world football, starting with the internal reform of the Federation itself. After his election as president of the international football federation, at the end of the Blatter era, Infantino wanted to start his presidency by saying he was immediately ready to change football from the inside and change its public face, also to help FIFA out of its moment of crisis caused by the scandals in 2015.
There are already two reforms underway for international football and they regard the expansion of two of the most important international tournaments: the FIFA World Cup and FIFA Club World Cup (with effect respectively as from 2026 and 2019).
FIFA World Cup – As for the World Cup, the idea would be to expand the tournament to a greater number of national teams, going from 32 teams to 40 or 48. In reality, the proposal is not entirely new, also Luis Figo – who also stood for Infantino’s current role – had proposed an expanded World Cup to 40 or 48 teams, but with a different format from that preferred by the current FIFA President.
Figo had in fact proposed to extend the tournament by three or four days and, by doing so, allow more countries to participate, either by forming eight groups of five teams (formula for a 40-team tournament) or by forming two groups of 24 teams, who in a first round would play in two separate tournaments on two different continents, and then only in the second stage would come together (but only the best teams from the two groups) in a single final tournament (formula for a 48-team tournament).
Infantino’s idea, on the other hand, is less revolutionary than Luis Figo’s, but at the same time, to his way of thinking, no less effective. The new proposal for the reform of the World Cup is that of basing the tournament on a total of 48 teams, among whom 16 would qualify automatically and directly (DQ).
The remaining 32 (PO), on the other hand, would take part in a play-off round directly where the tournament is being played, from which a further 16 teams (Q) would emerge as winners with straight knockout matches.
At this point the formula would be the same as currently, a 32-team tournament, with the difference that with this last play-off round it will be possible to give an extra chance to small countries to take part in the World Cup.
According to Gianni Infantino the quality of the tournament would not be affected and in addition the new formula, by facilitating access for smaller teams, would also give an extra boost to their countries, since, in order to help football grow worldwide – and this is FIFA’s main new objective – quoting the words of Infantino himself, “There is no greater boost for a country than qualifying for the World Cup”.
A further reform would also address the criticisms of the costs that staging a World Cup entails for the host country. FIFA is in fact thinking of giving the possibility to a number of countries to make a joint bid to host the World Cup and so limit the total costs for each country. In addition, consideration is also being given to implementing a rotation system among continents, in order to give each of them the possibility of hosting the World Cup in turn.
The proposal was discussed at the last FIFA Council meeting held in Zurich on 13 and 14 October and Infantino said he was satisfied at the outcomes, stating that a final decision would be taken by the end of January 2017.
FIFA WORLD CUP FOR CLUBS – There are changes also as regards the second great reform proposal from FIFA, which concerns the Club World Cup. Currently the tournament sees the title fought out between the teams which have respectively won the UEFA Champions League (Europe), CONCACAF Champions League (Central and North America), Copa Libertadores (South America), CAF Champions League (Africa), AFC Champions League (Asia) and OFC Champions League (Oceania), to which is added the team which is the current title holder in the domestic championship of the host country.
Starting in 2007 the tournament has therefore developed in the following way: every year the current champions of the OFC Champions League and of the championship of the host country of the World Club Cup meet in a preliminary round and the winners go through to the quarter-finals, to which the following already have automatic qualification: the winner of CONCACAF Champions League, CAF Champions League and of AFC Champions League. Subsequently the two winners of the quarter-finals go through to the subsequent round in which their names are drawn and they meet either the winner of the UEFA Champions League or the winner of Copa Libertadores (Conmebol), who automatically qualify for the semi-finals. Finally, the two winners meet in a final from which one of the two is crowned World Champions.
The new formula, on the other hand, envisages a vastly different tournament, to boost its prestige and make it more exciting, thus ensuring that it is even more closely followed worldwide.
Therefore, it will be a real club world cup in which 24 teams, divided into eight groups of three, will play for the title of World Champions. Taking part will be eight European teams (of which the first two will be the winners of the last two editions of the UEFA Champions League, while the participation criteria for the other six have still not been decided), eight South American teams (of which two are the winners of the last two Copa Libertadores and the other six are to be assessed) and the two winners of the last two editions of CONCACAF Champions League, CAF Champions League, AFC Champions League and OFC Champions League.
To these changes we may also add the fact that this competition will no longer be contested every year, but every two years starting from June 2019 and will have a longer duration than the current format.