FIFA would prefer to invite clubs that have won at least three European titles to the first Club World Cup.GETTY IMAGES
ManU and Liverpool "are in line to be invited to take part in a new 24-team Club World Cup" which could earn the clubs more than £100M ($135M), according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. FIFA is pushing ahead with plans for the new tournament to be held every four years, with the first to take place in June '21. China "is understood to have already expressed an interest in being the first host nation." There would be 12 clubs from Europe and FIFA's preferred option for the first edition of the tournament is to invite those clubs that have won "at least three Champions Leagues or European Cups." That would include Liverpool, ManU, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Inter Milan. Juventus "would also be invited on the basis of having won two European Cups and two Intercontinental titles." The three other European places would be selected by a "separate process, so far undetermined" (LONDON TIMES, 5/16).
'HUGE WINDFALL': In London, Massoudi & Ahmed reported FIFA is preparing to call a vote on a $25B proposal that promises a "huge windfall." The "radical plan" is being led by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who will in the "coming days" notify FIFA's ruling council of a "special meeting at which a decision can be made" before the World Cup in Russia, according to several people involved in the situation. In a private letter distributed in recent weeks to FIFA members, Infantino "spells out the proposal from the consortium," which has promised to inject $25B into a FIFA-controlled joint venture that would run a revamped Club World Cup and "Nations League" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 5/16).
'SERIOUS RESERVATIONS': REUTERS' Brian Homewood reported a UEFA council featuring representatives of players, leagues and clubs from across Europe complained on Wednesday that FIFA went over its head "in drawing up proposals for two ambitious new global competitions." The Professional Football Strategy Council said that it had "serious reservations" about the whole process and criticized "the hasty timing and lack of concrete information" from the sport's governing organization. Following a meeting in Lyon, the PFSC said that its members "had not been properly consulted" and added in a statement that it "unanimously expressed serious reservations about the process surrounding the FIFA Club World Cup and Global Nations League proposals" (REUTERS, 5/16).
