DOHA (Qatar): FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that football needed to be developed as the sport has changed a lot in the last 50 years.
The FIFA boss spoke to FIFA.com on the eve of FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) final between Liverpool and Flamengo besides sharing his views on Qatar’s readiness for 2022 World Cup and the future of world football competitions.
Excerpts.
On club football around the world.
The one thing I know is that I have been speaking to many people, representing many different interests, and no one seems to be really happy with the way things are right now with the system and match calendar.
People complain about how national leagues tend to be predictable, how most of the national team games are not interesting enough, how there are too many games being played. If we want to reach a solution to any of this, we must discuss. We must debate.
The fact is that football is changing: until 50 years ago, and if we want to develop football around the whole world we must think about this.
On how to implement changes.
This is what we need to discuss. The new CWC is certainly a new platform for that, and we are already seeing signs of an enormous interest in it.
FIFA has put out a Request For Proposal for companies wishing to work with us on the new tournament: 16 companies expressed interest and we received nine proposals, which we are now assessing. These are businesses interested in being partners of what will be the best club tournament in the world — a tournament entirely owned by FIFA, including intellectual properties.
The bottom line is that we must look into solutions. We must sit down to discuss all the different interests and to adapt the International Match Calendar as necessary.
On Qatar as 2022 FIFA World Cup host.
I’m very happy with what I have seen during the CWC with the preparations for 2022.
The CWC is an important test for a few of the elements that will be place at the World Cup, but the truth is that the level of readiness is there for all to see.
I’ve been organising big football tournaments for 20 years and I must say that the state of advancement of the works in Qatar is unparalleled. I’ve never seen a host country in the position to deliver every single infrastructure work two years prior to the event, which is what Qatar is on track to doing.
I’m sure that it will be a fantastic event and I believe that a World Cup in Qatar and Middle East will have the ability to change the perception of the rest of the world towards the region.
