A 2-year World Cup is bad for Football -By Ayobami Okerinde

Former Arsenal Fc Coach and FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, Arsene Wenger, recently made a call to reduce the number of every World Cup competition to two years. Wenger made this call with the belief that it will be for the benefit of the players and not financially motivated.

After his 22-year spell at Arsenal, Wenger left the club at the end of the 2017/2018 Premier League campaign, before taking a role at FIFA. In his new job as a FIFA chief, Wenger is expected to be chiefly responsible for overseeing and driving the growth and development of the sport for both men and women around the world. Wenger wasted no time to ensure he settled down in his new role, by making a series of calls/suggestions to make football better. It should be recalled that in 2015 as Arsenal Coach, Wenger made a call to UEFA to abolish the away-goal rule, which he did also in his new role. UEFA recently announced that the away-goal rule will no longer be applicable from the 2021/22 UEFA club competitions.

In his latest call, Wenger has made a call to stage the World Cup every two years, citing that it will help the players get a lot of rest. According to sports daily L’Equipe, Wenger noted “For the players, there will be no more matches, and there will be compulsory rest after the final stages, at least 25 days,” said Wenger who sees his proposed new format coming into action in 2028, two years after the 2026 World Cup in North America. “What people want today are high-stakes, easy-to-understand competitions,” he said, insisting there is “no financial intention behind it.” A closer look at this proposal shows, there’s more to gain financially and will also lead to more corruption in FIFA.

The World Cup and Olympics are the two biggest sporting events in the world. The World Cup is not an ordinary competition where 32 teams gather, fans across the globe for one month then depart, it’s a LEGACY that should be cherished and not tampered with. Soccer-loving Nigerians who were old enough in 1994, will stop at no length to eulogize the Super eagles’ team that went to the USA, and they serve as the benchmark of any national team setup in the country.

As Africans, South Africa 2010 will never be forgotten, as the first World Cup on our soil. Who would forget Waka Waka, Waving Flag, Vuvuzela, Jabulani, Octopus Paul, to mention a few, this is the beauty of the World Cup. The off-pitch actions are greater than the ones on the pitch, for anyone who has been to the Mundial.

(Back to Wenger), World Cup every two years will kill the feeling that makes it a World Cup. Countries will have limited time to plan for an edition.

Furthermore, a 2-year World Cup might give players rest, but it will affect other competitions. In Africa, countries have to go through two rounds of qualifying phase to qualify for the World Cup, also there are other Continental competitions and The FIFA Confederations Cup, all these will be affected with this 2-year proposal. This proposal will only generate more revenue for football oligarchs. How? With Wenger’s proposal, Friendly games (with no economic value) will be abolished and will pave way for a mini-competition that will involve sponsors, who will stop at no length to get value for this money.

Michael Garcia, an investigator published a 430-page dossier to expose the level of corruption in FIFA. There are indications that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 2014 in Brazil, 2018 in Russia, and the next one in Qatar (2022) were ‘illegally awarded as FIFA executives received bribes from eventual hosts. How much more magic will perform when it becomes a 2-year competition?

There are still growing concerns over Qatar 2022 as it is scheduled to take place between 21 November to December 18, 202 (A time where club actions are going on). (There’s a huge possibility that the 2022/23 football season will be disrupted.) World Cup every two years is driven by the need for more money and not for the game or players.