Biennial World Cup on Fifa's agenda

LAUSANNE • A World Cup held every two years is set to be discussed by football's bigwigs today, when Fifa holds its latest Congress.

The proposal has been put on the agenda of the global governing body's latest summit by the Saudi Arabian federation, which is close to Fifa president Gianni Infantino.

Discussion of a possible "feasibility study" of a World Cup every two years instead of four is likely to concern national leagues and clubs, who are seeing player burnout in an already packed calendar.

It comes after Fifa's football development chief Arsene Wenger suggested in March that the World Cup, the European Championship and other international tournaments be held every two years.

It was an idea immediately dubbed "unrealistic" by European Leagues, a body which groups 37 leagues and club associations in Europe, but still featured in a report carried out by Wenger and released last week.

Clubs risk their players picking up more injuries with such a dense calendar, while the economic benefits are also uncertain, according to Raffaele Poli, head of the CIES Football Observatory. "One should be aware of the risk of making a product less prestigious by making it less rare," Poli told AFP.

He also warned that a proliferation of international tournaments would eat away at the value of broadcast rights for both domestic championships and continental club competitions.

Infantino has stayed vague on the concept, saying at the end of March that he was open to any ideas for the post-2024 football calendar and earlier this month promising "interesting discussions" on the proposals.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE