Hit the new Club Cup with 32 teams
The European clubs and FIFA have yet to sign the memorandum of agreement between them for the transfer of international players from 2023. The current agreement, in force since 2015, expires on December 31 and the negotiations of these days, with a meeting of the ECA included in Doha, have not shed any further light. As published by The Athletic and confirmed by this newspaper, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) continues to be a Damocles sword for the relationship between FIFA and clubs . Moreover, the situation has become tense in the last month due to the lack of common ground. According to the list of participants in the ECA meeting, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, was not at a meeting that was supposed to be important to reach an agreement that has been delayed. In his place was the assistant general secretary, Mattias Grafstrom, who, according to The Athletic, dedicated himself to listening without even opening his mouth.
The details
The non-renewal of the MoU is of vital importance, since if an agreement is not reached, the clubs will not be obliged to give up their players in the March window, the first international in 2023. In addition, according to the Daily Mail, these tensions between FIFA and clubs could cause Infantino’s plan to create an expanded Club World Cup with 32 teams to be rejected or delayed . FIFA’s dream of holding a tournament that mirrors that of national teams, but at the club level, could be cut short due to the current bad relations. The project was made public and put on the table a few years ago. China was to be the first host . However, the pandemic and the delay in the calendar left the matter in the air and now the lack of understanding for the renewal of the MoU is an important boost.