“Having a World Cup every two years can be fun for smaller countries”
Organize the World Cup every two years instead of every four years. This proposal is on the table at the FIFA virtual meeting on the future of football. The Confederation of African Football is impressed with this plan, but the European Football Association (UEFA) in particular is vehemently opposed to it.
The so-called FIFA World Summit has yet to vote on the plans. “It is interesting to see how many countries like the idea of organizing the World Cup every two years,” says Ruud van der Knapp of Triple Double Sportmarketing. The plan is controversial, especially in Europe and South America. These associations believe that the burden on their players will increase and that the magic of the World Cup will disappear if the World Championships are held more often. But this suggestion could be interesting, especially for small countries. The chance of them appearing in the World Cup is double.
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The sports marketer also explains that hosting the World Cup twice could benefit FIFA’s revenue. FIFA raises about $5 billion to organize the World Cup. 3 billion of that comes from broadcasting rights and 2 billion from commercial income. According to Van der Knaap, 80 percent of that income is directly related to that tournament.
“Simply put, it seems that organizing the World Cup twice also means earning twice that.” UEFA thinks otherwise. According to UEFA, revenue would decrease by 2.5-3 billion euros within four years if the World Cup was held every two years.
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Van der Knapp does not think that it is boring to watch the World Cup every two years, because there are also sports that the World Cup is held every year. “So in that respect he could be fine. But football is conservative in nature. The major changes met with a lot of resistance, so I don’t expect this plan to work in the end,” says van der Knap.
The proposal is expected to be voted on at the FIFA Congress on March 31 next year in Doha.
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