ANOTHER FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

Gianni Infantino has proposed a new series of international friendly tournaments. What would they look like? When would they run? Who would benefit? Steve Menary investigates...

- Steve Menary

After last year’s World Cup finished, FIFA’s ebullient president Gianni Infantino unexpectedly floated a wish list of new competitions that would give his organisation a higher profile and more control. Without any consultation, Infantino created headlines with plans for an expanded Club World Cup, but what gained less attention was a proposal for a FIFA World Series of four-team friendly tournaments.

“We will now consult on all of these topics and then elaborate on all the details,” Infantino said at a news conference after the 37-member FIFA Council agreed on “strategic principles” for new competitions.

Details remain scarce. The World Series will be staged every March before major championships in evennumbered years and pit countries from different confederations against each other.

In the past, countries from different confederations have appeared as guests in other tournaments. CONMEBOL’s Copa America has comprised all ten of the confederation’s members plus two guests since 1993, when Mexico and the USA took part. Mexico and Costa Rica – both Spanish-speaking countries – have appeared regularly and six CONCACAF teams appeared in the centennial Copa America staged in the USA in 2016. Guests from outside the Americas have been scarce. Japan appeared in 1999 and returned 20 years later along with Qatar. The 2021 event was restricted to CONMEBOL members, but next year’s event will see six CONCACAF guests as part of a strategic partnership agreed in January between the two confederations.

The 2024 CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup will also include four guests from CONMEBOL, while the two confederations are creating a new club competition to include the top clubs from each region.