FIFA v UEFA: Seconds Out

“ I have seen the future and it works”... that is the sentiment emanating from FIFA and UEFA as they compete for space on the international stage over the next decade.

- Keir Radnedge

If it were only FIFA and UEFA it would be grisly enough, but adding fuel to the growing fires are a string of so-called “stakeholders”: from the European Club Association (not all of them) to the European leagues (not all of them) to the international players’ union, FIFPro.

Ahead of committee-room battles to come, the ECA has demanded “a new model which reduces the current burden on players”. This is a joke. What the ECA really wants is less nationalteam football so as to create space for more continent club action.Whatever happens, there will be a new international calendar from 2024, once the game has battled through the complications thrown up by the November/December rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup finals.

The game has Michel Platini to thank for both Qatar’s hosting and the calendar shift. Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter has made no secret of how Platini changed his mind from voting for the USA after a luncheon with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the Gulf state’s Emir-to-be.