Gull-Mouth Action podcast - episode 104 | Brighton's best XI
All the latest new for Brighton and Hove Albion and across the Premier League
Football’s global popularity is being placed at risk by skewing the sport’s balance towards more matches at international level, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has warned.
The impact of UEFA’s expansion of club competitions was again felt at domestic level this month, with Arsenal and Crystal Palace’s Carabao Cup tie and their league fixtures preceding it having to be rearranged in part due to Palace’s participation in the UEFA Conference League.
Leagues are also concerned about the impact of the expanded, summertime Club World Cup on their competitions from an economic and player welfare perspective, particularly amid talk of a further expansion from 32 to 48 teams and playing it every two years instead of every four.
Masters joined other league executives at the two-day World Leagues Association annual meeting in Athens this week, where the threat to domestic leagues from international expansion was one of the major topics discussed.
Master: Unprecedented expansion of international competitions
“(This meeting) is the best attended we’ve ever had and it’s no surprise it comes at a time when the balance between national and international football is under threat from the unprecedented expansion of international competitions,” Masters said.
“We cannot take football’s global popularity, its fans and its players for granted by fracturing this balance through an overloaded international calendar. All our members are united in their belief that to restore this balance domestic leagues must be protected.
“Football at all levels, from international competitions to grassroots, needs strong national leagues to provide the foundations. Dialogue with FIFA is now crucial and it is in the best interests of football to involve the leagues in any future decisions about the international calendar.”
European Leagues and the European division of world players’ union FIFPRO have filed a legal complaint to the European Commission against FIFA over what they see as an abuse of its dominant position under EU competition law.
They argue FIFA is abusing its position as both regulator and competition organiser and in doing so, causing economic and sporting damage to domestic leagues and jeopardising player welfare.
FIFA argues it is fully within its rights to organise competitions like the Club World Cup within the parameters of the international calendar.
FIFA also has a Memorandum of Understanding with European Football Clubs – which features 17 current Premier League clubs among its membership – through to 2030 which renews those clubs’ commitment to the international calendar.
Continue Reading