Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Wednesday, 20 December 2023 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Arsene Wenger says FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup can make football ‘really global’ and should not just be looked at from a European perspective.
The 32-team event will begin in 2025 with 12 European clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea.
World players’ union Fifpro and City boss Pep Guardiola have expressed concern at the plans.
However, FIFA’s chief of global football development Wenger says it is, “A chance for other clubs to progress.”
Having championed the idea of a biennial World Cup, only for it to be dropped amid fierce opposition, the Frenchman wants to find ways of making all the confederations as strong as Europe’s Uefa.
“The positive impact this will have on clubs is going to be huge, because it will increase resources for clubs all over the world to develop and to compete,” said the former Arsenal manager.
“In Europe we are lucky, but it’s important that we make football really global and this creates a chance for other clubs to progress. It will give more opportunities to more players all over the world to compete at the highest level. I accept that the football calendar is a busy one, but this is a competition that is going to take place every four years and of course the rest period during the competition and afterwards has to be respected.”
The final of the event in the United States in 2025 will take place on 13 July. Under normal circumstances that would be four weeks before the start of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, European club competitions were completed after the end of all domestic football, with the quarter-finals onwards staged in this August period.
As a result, the Premier League gave Manchester City and Manchester United the opening week of the 2020-21 season off to allow their players extra rest time.
Wenger believes a solution can be found this time and pointed to the improved treatment of players as evidence, their workload is being managed far better.
“The welfare of the players in the last 20 years has increased dramatically when you look at injury prevention, recovery work, nutrition and advances in medical technology,” he added.
“Also VAR has helped with the protection of players, as players know they cannot escape from making bad tackles that cause injury. We see players receiving world awards, the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Benzema, all over the age of 35. And it is not unusual to see international careers lasting over 20 years. Not so long ago, that was not possible.”
