The situation
FIFA President Gianni Infantino spoke to the media at a press conference in which he assessed the World Cup in Qatar : “For me the World Cup has been a true success at all levels. The relaxed atmosphere, the fact that people from all over the world have come together, I think is important for the future of all of us. When it comes to matches, we’ve seen some incredibly competitive matches, even with surprises. The goalaverage is similar to that of Russia in this World Cup.163 goals conceded to date. The World Cup has been played in the first part of the season and that has affected the quality of the matches. It is also important to note that no team has won all the matches played. And for the first time there are teams from all continents that have reached the final phase. That tells us a lot about football, which is becoming more and more global. An Arab team, Morocco, and Argentina, which has reached the final. So congratulations, ”he said, later confirming that the venue for the 2023 World Cup will be known in 2024.
The details
Regarding the numbers of workers killed in the World Cup, he added: “ I believe that each fatality is a victim in excess. It is a tragedy for his family. It is a tragedy for us. The figures you mention are disparate. Three, plus one person who died in the construction of the stadiums. The other number, out of 400, are people who have died in general construction since 2014. So, when we talk about numbers, we must always be very precise in order to avoid misrepresenting the numbers. For me, for all of us, anyone who passes away is a tragedy. And everything we can do to protect the health of workers, we did everything in our power. And so it was done. What we can do for the future we are already working on it”. Regarding the General Advocate of the European Union, he stated: “ We communicated our opinion yesterday about the Super League and about the opinion of the Advocate. It was clearly very positive for FIFA and UEFA. Recognize the fact that, of course, we have all the legitimacy to organize, approve and create competitions that the pyramid system of sport, with FIFA, the Confederations, the Leagues, is something that has its foundation in European law . This confirms what we have been saying for a long time. What FIFA enters with the creation of these tournaments goes to the world, a Federation does not keep it. We distribute it. We must continue to push the development of soccer worldwide.” The Italian-Swiss confirmed that they are going to introduce a 32-team Club World Cup that will be played from 2025: “The matches on the international calendar have had the unanimous support of the council. In the men’s, as you will remember, years ago we defined a new Club World Cup in 2025. It will take place with 32 teams, the 32 best teams in the world. The venue has not yet been determined. Regarding the international calendar, we had two periods in which we merged September and October. Four games in September and October. The rest stays the same. Another thing we have seen are matches between teams from different continents. It has been agreed to take advantage of the March period, those ten window days, in even years, that is, the years of the World Cup, Copa América and Europe, to organize friendly tournaments between four teams,from different confederations, so that everyone benefits from this. In this way, promote matches between teams from different confederations, ”he commented.
