FIFA considers adapting international calendar proposals - Wenger

A consultation process on proposed changes to the international game calendar in men’s football from 2024 is being overseen by FIFA’s chief of global football and one of the controversial plans is to have a biennial

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Arsene Wenger

talked about the developments in FIFA's Professional Football Conference, with leagues and clubs from around the world included.

"

The feedback we got is that one single October window is considered too extreme,"

he said, during the virtual conference from FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

"(There has been) demand from the federations to keep the original number of games because they sell the qualifiers and they think the drop of income will be too big for them.

"The smaller nations also said if you reduce the number of qualifiers and we do not qualify for the big tournaments, we have fewer opportunities to compete as with the current format.

"Everybody says the status quo is not accepted. We want a change. So what can we do?

"Looking at the federations demanding for more qualifiers than we proposed initially, we could add option three. That means in the initial proposal, for example, in option two you had four games in October and three games in March. We could play six games in October and two games in March and two games in preparation for the final tournament in June."

166 associations in world football have voted for a feasibility study into a biennial World Cup. The plan was strongly criticized by UEFA.

Gianni Infantino

, the FIFA president, said he would like there to be a “consensus” on the calendar on December 20 at a global summit.

"

It is sporting motivations that are guiding us,"

he said at a news conference last month.

"Not the financial, but sporting motivations. It is really important to listen to all the questions."

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