The expansion of the Club World Cup to 32 teams is a thorn in the side of the DFL, among others. FIFA is defending itself against this, sometimes with harsh words
On Thursday, DFL managing directors Steffen Merkel and Marc Lenz publicly vented their anger at the abundance of dates in the soccer calendar, saying that the national leagues should be better protected. As it now turns out, the dispute with soccer’s world governing body has been going on for quite some time. At the end of last season, FIFA reacted sharply to a corresponding request from the World League umbrella organization and the players’ union Fifpro.
“From the outset, we reject any suggestion or allegation that FIFA has created the international match calendar of the soccer community without proper consultation or to further its own ‘business strategy’,” reads a letter from FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström to the general secretaries of the two organizations,
While the World League only complained about the increase in FIFA dates, the players’ unions from England and France, as Fifpro members, even filed a complaint with a commercial court in Brussels against the “legality of FIFA’s decisions to unilaterally determine the international match calendar”.
According to Grafström, the world governing body is continuously engaged in “extensive consultations” with relevant interest groups. “Any claim that this has not happened is not supported by the facts. For example, the issue of the calendar has been discussed on several occasions with Fifpro and the World Leagues,” the FIFA Secretary General emphasized.
Club World Cup lasts 28 days
The starting point for the differences is a schedule that has become increasingly tight in recent years due to the Champions, Europa, Conference and Nations League. From 2025, the Club World Cup will replace the Confederations Cup every four years. While it lasted 15 days when it was last held in 2017, the Club World Cup will run for 28 days next year. The two finalists will play seven matches in the USA from June 15 to July 13. Half of the 32 participants will be eliminated after three preliminary round matches
70 competitive appearances for Julian Alvarez
The Football Association also refers to a statistic from the independent CIES Football Observatory, according to which the burden of FIFA competitions on players in 40 major leagues over the past twelve years has been less than one percent of their total playing time. The Club World Cup will increase this proportion only marginally. Fifpro, on the other hand, calculates that a top player like Julian Alvarez made 70 competitive appearances in 2023/24 in a Manchester City shirt and for the Argentinian national team.
