Fifa World Cup proposal: For ‘truly global’ soccer, or just for cash?

Should we have a soccer World Cup every two years, instead of the current four-year cycle?

That’s the question Fifa is putting forward to its members at their online summit today.

There will not be a vote by the 211 member federations, but the sport’s governing body wants to see if there is an appetite for the proposal – the brainchild of former Arsenal manager and now Fifa head of global development Arsene Wenger, who believes there should be a major international tournament every year, alternating between a World Cup and different continental championships.

Other than making more money, one of the main reasons for the proposal is to open up the tournament to smaller countries, but many will argue that has been addressed by the expansion to 48 teams from 2026.

Player burnouts and busy schedules are also a major concern, prompting criticism from players and the various leagues around the world.

However, it has been backed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which accounts for 54 of the 211 member associations.

Concacaf, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, and the Asian Football Confederation and the Oceania region are also believed to be open to the idea.

The Europeans (Uefa) and South Americans (Conmebol) are against the proposal.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino said this week: “When we scratch beneath the surface, we see that top football is very much confined to a small group of countries. It is our job to narrow this gap.”

Infantino also said he wanted more countries to host the global spectacle because “right now, the World Cup doesn’t come back to a continent for 24 years and that’s more than a generation”.

It makes sense for CAF to back the proposal, because as it stands, Africa only have five representatives at a World Cup.

This would surely give them more representation.

So is the proposal all about wanting to make soccer “truly global”, or is it all about profits?