FIFA World Cup every two years will destroy football
FIFA executives and some other important football people will this month consider the possibility of playing FIFA football world cup every two years. That should not happen. However, you put it. In any case. Otherwise, football will be dead or nicely put, as a transparent once said, “stolen by the rich”.
How else can you understand such a radical proposition then through the eyes of getting some rich people even richer? Money makes money they say. In this case, I hope they’ll see that there are far more cons than pros.
UEFA, the European governing body of football, ordered research that would predict the results of such action. The research showed that domestic football leagues around the world would lose up to 5 billion dollars if the FIFA World Cup would take place every two years.
Reasons are logical. With more big tournaments, people’s interest in Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, etc. would fall. Therefore, TV rights would not be sold so high, football jerseys and other marketing stuff would also lose value in the eyes of football fans … So much instant damage to the football’s core.
Moreover, the league’s calendars would be shorter, so the national teams will have more, or should we rather say enough, time to prepare for the big tournaments. There would also be fewer clubs competing in single divisions (Premier League would be reduced to 18) in order to have time for also cups and other European competitions (Champions League, Europa League, etc).
However, reasons pointed out by the research are neglecting ones that are, in my humble opinion, even more important than money. They completely bypass the people that deliver us this beautiful sport. Footballers themselves. Let me show you the more devastating consequences of such world cup frequency.
Let’s for example take into consideration Kevin De Bruyne. He is a Belgian international football player that currently plays for the English Premier League team Manchester City. At the moment, he is one of the best players in the world.
He has been to a Euro 2020 with Belgium. Reaching the quarter-finals means that he prolonged his season quite a bit. Therefore, his vacations are postponed. Since he badly needs them after such a season, he normally goes on a holiday after the tournament. Meanwhile, pre-season for his club Manchester City has already begun.
He finishes his holiday in, let’s say two weeks’ time. Far too short. On the other hand, Manchester City’s pre-season process is reaching its end or is well beyond the middle. De Bruyne joins the process but it will be extremely short for him. In normal circumstances, he would certainly not be ready for the begging of the season.
But we all know how it works right. Instead of allowing him to make at least 80% of pre-season at the cost of missing some matches, he will be, not even close to being fit, forced to play the opening important match (English super cup known as Community shield) since the club badly needs him.
Still physically and emotionally tired from the last long summer he begins his new season just like that. Since he will have to reach his fitness level through league matches, instead of the training process, the risk of getting injured immediately increases by miles.
Let’s say he is lucky and stays clear of injuries. Since his influence on the pitch is vital and is a player that can win you football matches from nothing, he plays 98% of all club matches. Don’t forget, we are not here talking only about league matches. There’s also FA Cup, Champions league …
To get the situation even more tiresome, he must attend all international breaks to be with his national team, and play practically every match in world cup qualifiers. The bottom line, they make it. Belgium is going to the next world cup.
Some may argue that with getting injured, you have time to relax and recover. Maybe at first, but after you pass your medical to be fully fit, you are immediately put to the season and not pre-season training. You can guess what that means if the club is having so many matches right? There is almost no time for serious training and since you are so good that you simply have to play, the process of reaching a sufficient fitness level is down to matches and not training. Again.
Fast forward. Season 2021/2022 reached its end and Kevin De Bruyne was in sublime form. Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions, reached the Champions League semi-final and FA cup final.
With full confidence, Belgian goes to the world cup and repeats the summer from the article’s beginning. AHA! This is where it gets interesting. Instead of having the next summer off, he would again have to play the Euros since they would be moved to an odd year.
It takes no big mathematician to figure it out that for top players with top home countries qualifying for every big tournament, there will be no more “free” summers. And who can keep up with that tempo?
No one, for sure. Injuries, fatigue, anxiety, depression, drug abuse, family problems … you name it. No glory and money can save you from that. We know far too many examples from footballers, unfortunately.
With that said, problems of where to fit in the Nations League and confederations cup in that new proposal seem so distant. Decision-makers must see, that the real problem would be the well-being of people they adore to watch. Footballers.
