Survival Championship – Newspaper Kommersant No. 44 (7489) dated 03/16/2023

The International Football Federation (FIFA), before being re-elected as president of Gianni Infantino, announced another test of strength, invented by the structure for the world’s leading football players. Choosing options for the format of the next World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026, she settled on a scheme with a maximum number of matches – 104. This format leaves players with a minimum of time to rest and recover before and after the championship, despite the fact that experts are already counting the drop-outs they are overburdened. But FIFA is confident that he will help it increase revenue in the next four-year cycle to a mind-boggling figure of $11 billion.

The Council of the International Football Federation before the next congress, at which Gianni Infantino will be re-elected to the presidency on Thursday on a non-alternative basis, approved format following the world championship that ended in December in Qatar. It will take place in the summer of 2026, and three North American countries will host the tournament at once – the USA, Canada and Mexico. The championship will be held in a radically expanded composition compared to the previous ones. Instead of 32 teams, as was the case at all championships, starting from the French 1998, 48 teams will perform at the championship in North America.

The increase in the number of participants required adjustments to the scheme for drawing the main football title. Choosing from several options, FIFA settled on the simplest. At the group stage, the teams will be divided into 12 quartets. The starting round of the play-offs – the 1/16 finals – will feature two leaders from each group, as well as eight teams that have taken third place with the best results. A similar system is now used in the European Championships. They also add some of those who finished third in the groups to the play-off bracket.

Explaining his choice, FIFA said in a statement that he would ensure that any of the national teams have a minimum of three matches in the most prestigious of the tournaments with a “balanced rest period”, and also eliminate the “risk of collusion”.

What is meant by such a risk is clear. The main competitor of the dozen-quartet format in the preliminaries was the 16-trip format. But in a three-team group, the schedule itself inevitably puts them at odds, as one skips the final day of the competition after playing two of their matches before it. At the same time, there is a high probability that a situation will arise in which, in a meeting of both of her opponents, in order to “unhook” the third, a certain result will suit.

But another thesis of FIFA – about a “balanced” vacation – looks extremely controversial. The advantage of the formats that competed with the accepted one was their relative compactness. FIFA could well stop at the fact that it provided for holding 80 meetings within the framework of the championship – 16 more than it was in Qatar. But she settled on the extreme version in terms of the saturation of the tournament with games. There will be a total of 104.

The announcement of the format of the North American championship came a week after the publication by the International Association of Professional Football Players (FIFPro) of a large study on the impact of the calendar on the state of the top players this season. The central place in it belongs to the “World Cup effect”, which, due to the specific timing (the Qatari tournament was postponed until the end of the year), forced the players to switch from club competitions to international competitions and back, with little time for rest and recovery.

FIFPro argued that the compressed calendar and peculiarities of the world championship led to the functional and psychological exhaustion of athletes, as well as a wave of injuries.

She called the loads on them “excessive”, and a number of celebrities who participated in the association’s survey described them even harsher – as “monstrous” and “suicidal.”

In fact, specifically during the World Cup in North America, the schedule of the national teams in terms of rigidity will not differ much from the Qatari one. In fact, for the strongest, the difference comes down to an extra play-off match (in Qatar, this stage was opened by the 1/8 finals). However, the density of the schedule in 2026 will not increase because of this. The North American championship will last 38 or 39 days with the final on July 19, while the Qatari took only 29.

The problem is different. Having stretched the championship, FIFA again reserved a meager segment for the players to prepare for the tournament. Given that the European club season ends at the end of May, it will be about two weeks, that is, most likely, a little more than before the Qatari championship. And many teams will have to return to the clubs again immediately after the championship. In the second half of July, the European Cup qualification starts, in August – the national championships.

There is also a factor that exacerbates the problem, which appeared thanks to the reformist ideas of Gianni Infantino.

The fact is that in the season preceding the World Cup, the stars will not have a full vacation. For the summer of 2025, FIFA has scheduled the debut draw of the club world championship in an expanded format – from 32 teams instead of the current seven.

Twelve of them will represent Europe. In other words, the lion’s share of the continental giants, which are the basis for recruiting a number of national teams, will play in the Club World Cup.

It is not surprising that the latest news from FIFA has been met with another round of criticism from organizations whose job is to take care of the well-being of the players. For example, FIFPro has received strong support from the Professional Footballers’ Association of England (PFA). Its chief executive, Maheta Molango, said the federation’s promises to consult with footballers about changes to their already “busy” schedule “does not fit” with the constant “expansion of the domestic and international calendar.” “We cannot continue to push the players to the brink of the abyss,” the functionary added in an interview with the BBC.

However, Gianni Infantino has an argument at hand that, at least in the opinion of many officials, certainly outweighs concerns for the health of the players. Over the winter, FIFA announced that it plans to halve its revenues over the next four-year cycle, to an astronomical $11 billion. And the driver of growth should be the World Cup in North America, the value of which – for example, to television and sponsors – will be increased by 40 “extra” matches .

Alexey Dospekhov