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FIFA boss looking at soccer reform after coronavirus crisis
MILAN, March 23, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – FIFA president Gianni Infantino believes
the global coronavirus crisis could bring about a reform of football which he
does not expect to return to action by May.
“Without panic, let’s face it, we will play when we can without endangering
anyone’s health,” the head of world football said.
“Health first. Then everything else. And the rest, for managers, means
hoping for the best but also preparing for the worst.”
World football has been thrown into turmoil by the pandemic which has
killed 15,000 and confined more than a billion people ot their homes.
The Euro 2020 and Copa America tournaments have already been pushed back
while uncertainty remains over the inaugural 24-team Club World Cup from
2021.
“We need an assessment of the global economic impact,” the 50-year-old
Swiss told Monday’s edition of Gazzetta Dello Sport.
“We don’t know when things will return to normal.
“But let’s look at the opportunities. We can perhaps reform world football
by taking a step back. With different formats. Fewer tournaments, maybe fewer
teams, but more balanced.
“Fewer games to protect the health of the players.
“It’s not science fiction, let’s talk about it. Let’s quantify the damage,
see how to cover it, make sacrifices and let’s start again.
“Not from scratch. But let’s all save football together from a crisis that
risks being irreversible.”
Infantino revealed he was working on temporary derogations on footballers’
contracts to avoid the June 30 deadline.
“Now let’s think about the national team calendar, and about temporary
changes and dispensations for the regulations on the status of players and
transfers.
“To protect contracts and adapt registration periods. Tough measures are
needed tough. But there is no choice. We will all have to make sacrifices.”
Infantino, meanwhile, dismissed talk of a planned European Super League for
the top clubs.
“It makes me laugh,” he said. “And what else? From what I see, others are
already planning and organising tournaments around the world, outside the
institutional structures, and without respect for how domestic, continental
and world football are organised.
“In the future we must have at least 50 national teams that can win the
World Cup, not just eight European and two South American ones.
“And 50 clubs that can win the Club World Cup, not just five or six
European ones. And twenty of these 50 will be Europeans, which seems to me
better than today’s five or six. But this is not the time to talk about it
now.”
BSS/AFP/FI/ 2115 hrs