A phantom World Cup: it is the one for clubs wanted, in the new format, by FIFA Of Gianni Infantino. Scheduled for summer 2025, at the moment we know the qualified clubs and little else. The venues of the matches, the sponsorship and television agreements and the prize money for the participating teams are not known. The time frame, between the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 seasons, also creates various problems for the clubs and above all for the players. The latter are on a war footing: yesterday was the news of the adhesion of the Italian footballers’ association, together with the English and French unions, to the lawsuit brought against FIFA by FIFPro Europe, the European footballers’ union.
TO TMW he talked about it Umberto Calcagnopresident ofAIC. Inevitable, on the day after the defeat against Spain, to start with a brief comment on the National by Luciano Spalletti: “Objectively we didn’t approach the match in the right way. Of course, we were facing perhaps the national team with the best talents we’ve seen so far at the European Championships.”
Did we overestimate ourselves after the match against Albania?
“No, in my opinion if you have matches like the one against Albania, even against Spain, you can have a different balance. Beyond the impact that certain individualities can have, objectively if we had been the ones seen against Albania, I am convinced that we also have the arrows in our bow. I was sorry that yesterday we were unable to put our individual talents in a position to harm Spain.”
Let’s go back to the central theme. You have joined the lawsuit brought against FIFA by FIFPro Europe.
“It was something agreed upon from the beginning. We held meetings which also involved the associations of the world and European leagues. It is something that we hope can be carried forward, at least also by the European leagues. There is unity of intent, starting by the desire to preserve the health of the players: today even the clubs, who live in contact with the players, are starting to understand how important it is to avoid this slope which now seems irreversible this point of view.”
The hope, we imagine, is that it is not necessary to reach the end of the judicial process but that FIFA seeks a meeting ground.
“Without a doubt. The thing we complain more than others is that there is a lack of dialogue. On a legal level, we contest the fact that a body, the regulatory body, organizes a new competition without saying anything to anyone. I believe that even for this reason, from a strictly legal point of view, there are good possibilities regarding the outcome. But I hope that we can sit down at a table, seriously: we don’t want the message to get across that the players intend to hinder major competitions, we are aware that from the resources that carry football forward come there.”
Do you have the feeling that even the interested clubs, who perhaps had celebrated qualification, are starting to doubt this competition?
“I believe that clubs have realized that most of the income ends up in salaries paid to injured players. And also that injuries lead to a lowering of the value of members. We are realizing that protecting the health of players means protect the company’s assets. Even the best, if he has to play 80-85 games, cannot perform at his best and so the quality of the product becomes poorer”.
How can we explain this unilateral decision-making process by FIFA?
“For me it’s inexplicable. As football people, I think of Infantino who has been part of this world all his life, he can think of unilaterally imposing something like this escapes me.”
And which risks, I think of Platini’s words yesterday, of pushing people towards the Super League.
“I want to clarify one point: we are not against the system. However, we want it to work better, to listen to the requests that come from the world of footballers and from that of the leagues. I believe that preserving health, sporting merit and national championships are values of great importance long superior to those that can form the basis of a mega competition”.
You are not against the system, of course. But thus FIFA, and consequently also UEFA, make themselves unpopular…
“Well, it’s clear that FIFA’s behavior like this doesn’t help everyone stay together. I’m not talking about having created a new competition, but about having imposed it unilaterally without listening to anyone.”
Hasn’t FIFA gone too far in their announcements to be able to go back on the World Cup without passing it off as an own goal?
“If we recognize that doing it with these methods and timing was a mistake, we sit at a table and reprogram the future. If instead we enter into these dynamics, we go into a wall-to-wall clash and we will see in the end who was right However, I hope that we enter the season of dialogue, with everyone.”
The impression is that we are always moving in the direction of increasing the number of games. Club World Cup, new Champions League, super cup…
“Well, our internal championships have generated the same number of games for twenty years. One has been added with the four-man super cup, but it doesn’t change much. We can’t resolve the issue with the league, in fact we are in agreement but New balances must be created. I’m not saying that our world shouldn’t change, but we have to understand in what ways there are some forcings from FIFA that we don’t like, but it can’t be discussed. the problem is at the root.”
Speaking of problems: that of the contracts expiring on 30 June 2025 is essentially unsolvable.
“Look, I’ll give you an example from current events. Think about Mbappé: do you think Real Madrid would leave him at Paris Saint-Germain until the end of the World Cup? We’re talking about nothing, about players who would play the first half of the World Cup with one team and the second with the other. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m thinking about holidays: footballers are good and lucky, they do the best job in the world, but they too have the right to spend four weeks a year to regenerate. It’s convenient for everyone. They’ve already missed the winter break, which we continue to insist on: today we’re talking about removing the summer period too: I wonder how they’ll be able to start the championship on time if they have it , as it has always been, the three weeks of break. What do we do, do Lautaro or Chiesa stop for three weeks in November? to the income deriving from participation in the Champions League. They are inevitably connected aspects.”
