The former Arsenal boss is now FIFA’s head of global development and has caused huge debate over his plans to change the footballing calendar with a major tournament every year.
Arsene Wenger has unveiled his grand plan for the future of football after claiming he is “100% convinced it is the right solution.”
Earlier, he had made a presentation outlining FIFA’s wish for a World Cup every two years with heavyweight support from the likes of Peter Schmeichel and ex-Brazil star Ronaldo.
It comes despite fierce competition from UEFA, the Premier League and clubs have already voiced concerns that could spark a major civil war within football with FIFA trying to bring in a new global calendar for 2028.
Wenger’s outline for the future of the beautiful game included plans for:
- World Cup every two years to deliver “better quality” games more frequently
- New global calendar which would see international breaks scaled back to once a season in October with tournaments in June.
- Players to play “more meaningful games” rather than more games but would travel significantly less.
- England would play LESS games in Wenger’s proposal, cutting the number of games from 44 in 2014-2018 to 43 and Argentina would play four less.
- Clubs would remain all-important because there would still be an “80 to 20%” balance towards domestic football.
- There could be a major international tournament every summer as the World Cup would fit between the Euros and Copa America.
FIFA is super confident of getting the plan voted through because they believe they have a huge majority of the 211 national associations on board supporting it. They also believe they have strong support in South America despite UEFA’s claims to the contrary.
But FIFA’s plan has caused an uproar at UEFA as president Alexandra Ceferin has voiced his opposition and the stand-off could turn as ugly between the two governing bodies as it did with the botched European Super League.