Biennial World Cup would make football £3.3bn richer

 

FIFA’s member associations have been told at Monday’s global summit that a World Cup every two years would make football £3.3bn richer over every four-year cycle.

Independent research carried out for FIFA by Nielsen predicts World Cup revenues would rise from £5.3bn to £8.6bn due to increased revenue from media rights, sponsorship and gate receipts.

It is estimated that each of FIFA’s 211 member associations would receive an extra £12m over every four-year cycle to spend on football development projects such as new pitches, youth football and coach training.

FIFA believes a biennial World Cup would increase the quality of international football around the world and allow more opportunities for teams and players to play in the tournament.

Research carried out by OpenEconomics for FIFA also predicts a biennial World Cup would boost global GDP by £136bn over a 16-year cycle and create two million full-time jobs.

FIFA and UEFA remained in opposite corners about the feasibility of a biennial World Cup after issuing reports with starkly contrasting conclusions on Friday.

UEFA warned of a “deeply negative outlook” for international football if FIFA’s proposal is given the green light ahead of the world governing body holding its global summit with national associations on Monday.

FIFA’s survey of supporters found a generally positive response for a more frequent World Cup tournament as long as player workload was not increased.

The World Cup is currently held once every four years but FIFA are looking at options to make it biennial

Arsene Wenger says he understands why some are concerned about his proposals to hold a World Cup every two years, but insists it is in the best interests of football.

However, more of the negative results came from Europe, where there was a minority (48 per cent) in favour of a biennial event and three major footballing nations – England, Germany and France – provided the strongest disapproval rating. Only 10 per cent of those surveyed in England were in favour.

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Supporters from Africa (76 per cent in favour) and Asia (66 per cent) were most positive.

There was also a bias towards age in the FIFA findings, with younger age groups in favour of more World Cup finals and those aged over 55 most opposed.

UEFA’s study was completed by consultancy firm Oliver and Ohlbaum, and the European governing body said the results were “alarming” and “raise severe concerns over the sustainability of the plan for European associations” as well as raising issues for other sports, a concern previously brought up by the International Olympic Committee.