August 2 – Facing the threat of legal action, FIFA is holding out an olive branch to European leagues and players in order to end a three-month deadlock over the international match calendar.
Last month the European Leagues – representing professional football in 33 nations, including the Premier League – announced it was filing a complaint to the European Commission along with players’ union Fifpro Europe, accusing FIFA of abusing its position by adding to already congested fixture schedules and putting players’ health at risk, in particular by staging the expanded 32-team Club World Cup next year.
They called for an immediate suspension of the 2025 competition to be hosted in the US.
The two bodies say FIFA’s conduct with regards to the calendar has “harmed the economic interests of national leagues and the welfare of players” and argue FIFA’s role as a regulator and competition organiser is a conflict of interest.
On the back foot, FIFA now says it has invited both organisations for talks.
“FIFA has today reiterated an invitation to meet and discuss the calendar with World Leagues Association and FIFPRO, having received no response to a letter on 10 May 2024,” a FIFA spokesperson said.
“FIFA believes there is a more productive way forward for football than the threat of legal action and the offer to engage in dialogue remains on the table.
“FIFA serves and balances the overall interests of world football, including the protection of players, and always strives to do what is best for the game around the world.”
The first edition of the expanded Club World Cup will be played in June and July next year in the US, with 12 European clubs are due to feature.
Many of the continent’s leading players will therefore be obliged to participate at a time when they would otherwise be resting during a close-season break, a year ahead of the newly expanded 48-team World Cup.
Whether the various stakeholders will now agree to an invitation for talks is highly questionable given the language used by FIFA as soon as the legal threat was launched.
With the CWC expansion being the personal project of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, his organisation rushed out a statement suggesting some leagues in Europe were “acting with commercial self-interest, hypocrisy, and without consideration to everyone else in the world.”
At FIFA’s congress in May, Infantino in his address to member said: “We should probably stop this futile debate, which is really pointless and focus on what we have to do, what our mission is, which is to organise.
“To develop football around the world because 70% of you of the member associations of FIFA would have no football without the resources coming directly.”
FIFA will hope that what now appears to be a more conciliatory approach will persuade the leagues and unions that progress can be made to ease a burgeoning impasse.
FIFA still has to announce host cities for the Club World Cup in 2025 though rumours from bid cities in the US are that they are expecting announcements within the next two weeks.
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