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FIFA Chief Gianni Infantino Plans Changes To Football Calendar After Coronavirus

FIFA Chief Gianni Infantino Plans Changes To Football Calendar After Coronavirus

The pandemic has left football with a lot of questions as there isn't a lot of room in the calendar to play all the remaining games.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has hinted that there could be major changes to the football calendar in order to 'protect players' and make the sport 'more competitive.'

Football is on an almost total lockdown throughout the world, thanks to the outbreak of Covid-19, and with no certain end in sight there could be a very packed end of the European season.

With the Euros moved to next summer the leagues have all the time to finish but it could have a knock on effect to next season and FIFA's extended World Club Cup in 2021 will have to be changed.

Now Infantino has revealed that going forward some competitions may have to be got rid of. "An assessment of the global economic impact is needed. It's difficult right now, we don't know when it will return to normal," he told Gazzetta dello Sport

"But we look at the opportunities. We can perhaps reform world football by taking a step back. With different formats. Less tournaments, but more interesting. Maybe fewer teams, but more balanced. Less games, to protect the health of the players, but more competitive."

Infantino's own World Club Cup could be in jeopardy. Image: PA Images
Infantino's own World Club Cup could be in jeopardy. Image: PA Images

The former UEFA president also called on World Cups and World Club Cups being more competitive, wanting winners for the latter to come from outside of Europe, and ruling out a European super league adding, "From what I see, others are already planning and organising tournaments around the world, outside the institutional structures, and without respect for how domestic, continental and world football is organised.

"In the future we must have a least 50 national sides that can win the World Cup, not just eight in Europe and two in South America.

"We need 50 clubs that can win the Club World Cup, not just five or six European ones. And 20 of these 50 will be European, which seems better than today's five or six. But it's not the right time to talk about this now."

Finally the 50-year-old called for everyone's health to be top of the priority for football, "Health comes first, then everything else.

"For the managers, the rest means hoping for the best but also preparing for the worst.

"Without panicking, let's say it clearly: we will play again when we can do it without putting anyone's health at risk."

UEFA extended their season until the end of June and the Football Association extended theirs past the normal June 1st deadline, whilst also extending how long we'd be without football until the end of April.

Exactly how, or if, this season finishes is still up in the air but it looks like football can finally admit that there's currently too much of it.

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Topics: Football News, Europa League, FIFA, World Football, Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, Euros, Gianni Infantino