UAF President Andriy Pavelko took part in UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Chisinau

22.09.2021 20:35

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The UEFA Executive Committee has adopted a statement on the initiative to hold the World Cup every two years, according to the UEFA website.

UEFA statement on the proposal to hold the World Cup every two years

The impact and consequences of potential radical steps do not require public statements, but thorough consultations.

In May 2021, the FIFA Congress instructed the FIFA administration to study the feasibility of holding men's and women's world championships every two years.

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UEFA believes that the word "realism" includes all effects and consequences, as well as all aspects related to:

• calendar, format and selection scheme for the final stage, as well as previous tournaments;
• influence on tournaments for clubs and national teams, their sports and commercial opportunities;
• impact on the physical and mental health of football players;
• influence on fans, their desire to see tournaments of this scale more often, their ability to travel frequently in the long run;
• impact on the football ecosystem in a broad sense, by which we mean the study of the balance of development opportunities of the national teams of each of the 211 national associations of FIFA in such a drastic scenario of change;
• the impact of more frequent final stages of the World Cup on the significance and attractiveness of this event and brand;
• influence on other important aspects of football, such as tournaments for women, which are in a stage of rapid growth, which requires increased representation and an exclusive platform;
• influence on youth tournaments, which have minimal commercial potential, but play a crucial role in the development of young talents;
• influence on the world sports system and respect for the single position from which football, as the most popular sport, should treat its representation and use itself in other sports.

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Awaiting the detailed results of the study commissioned by the FIFA Congress, which will cover all these areas, UEFA acknowledges that FIFA has presented a proposal that involves doubling the number of World Cup finals from 2028, as well as the finals of the Confederations Cup from 2025, in combined with a large-scale restructuring of the dates set in the international calendar for national team matches, which are regularly held by all 211 FIFA associations.

We are grateful for the attention paid to the European Championship and the proposed double frequency of its final stage, but we prefer to approach such a serious issue comprehensively rather than speculatively.

UEFA is disappointed with the approach taken, whereby radical reform projects are first made public and openly promoted before all stakeholders have the opportunity to participate in any consultation process.

There are real dangers associated with the announced plan:

• reducing the significance of the world football event №1, because holding the tournament every four years added to it the mystery in which generations of fans grew up;
• blurring sports opportunities for weaker national teams by replacing regular matches with final competitions;
• risk to the long-term health of players who are forced to participate annually in high-intensity summer competitions instead of longer breaks to recover in their free years;
• risk for the future of women's tournaments, which will be deprived of exclusive slots and will fall into the shadow of frequent top men's tournaments.

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These are just some of the serious concerns raised by FIFA's proposal, and just unfounded advertising slogans about the supposed benefits of a tighter calendar for the final tournaments will not dispel this concern.

UEFA believes that the future of the international calendar should be developed through a full consultation process and exchange of views between FIFA, the confederations and the parties involved in the organization of tournaments, and should begin with identifying obvious problems and finding solutions. This should be done in a debate, taking into account the interests of football and the legitimate views of different parties.

At this stage, as part of a respectful stakeholder consultation process, which should be impartial, one should refrain from propaganda campaigns aimed at promoting one-sided concepts that have not been seen in detail and that can have major and often unexpected consequences.

On 14 September, UEFA and 55 European associations asked FIFA to hold a special meeting to raise concerns about the impact of such plans. UEFA and 55 European associations have not yet received a response from FIFA.

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Andriy Pavelko, President of the Ukrainian Football Association and a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, spoke about his participation in the UEFA Executive Committee: “Today I took part in the work of the UEFA Executive Committee, which met in Chisinau. Together with colleagues they listened to the reports of UEFA committees on the work done and the financial report of the organization, approved the regulations of the League of Nations-2022/2023 and the qualifying tournament for the Futsal World Cup-2024, discussed the UEFA Convention on the Future of European Football. In addition, the executive committee made a statement on the initiative to hold the World Cup every two years, because such a proposal requires very careful analysis and consultation.

In the context of recent events, they also discussed the situation with the so-called "Super League". I am grateful to all my European colleagues, and above all to UEFA President Alexander Cheferin, for a clear and united position on this issue, which condemns any action aimed at splitting the European football community and threatens the positive achievements of many years of joint work on football development. I also thank Ukrainian football legends Oleg Blokhin, Igor Belanov, Oleg Protasov, Anatoly Demyanenko and Oleksiy Mykhailychenko for supporting the position of UEFA and Alexander Cheferin in this context, which they expressed to the president of the union in a joint letter.

During the meeting in Chisinau I had the opportunity to personally convey words of support from our legends and congratulate Alexander on the World Football Summit and recognition as the best leader for the successful holding of Euro 2020 in a pandemic and active position in the fight against the Super League. The UEFA team is stronger than ever in its unity! ”