The International Football Federations Thread

[Baddar]

[Colly]

Don't feed them after midnight. 

[Lineker]

Quote

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is looking to continue his complete overhaul of international football with a proposed new tournament that will replace the Confederations Cup.

In a letter received by Reuters, Infantino lays out plans for the project that is currently only titled ‘Final 8.’ The tournament would be a direct follow on from the upcoming Nations League, taking place every two years as of October and/or November 2021.

The Confederations Cup is a trophy competed for by the seven current reigning continental or world champions and a host nation, in every odd year following a round of continental tournaments. Teams qualify by winning either UEFA European Championship, CAF Cup of Nations, CONCACAF Gold Cup, CONMEBOL Copa America, OFC Nations Cup, AFC Asian Cup or FIFA World Cup.

The next tournament is currently scheduled to take place in Qatar 2021 but that could now be scrapped in favour of the new format. With dwindling interest in the tournament, Infantino believes an overhaul could prove popular and reportedly already has a ‘solid and serious’ group of investors ready to spend up to $25 billion on it.

The letter did not clearly indicate how qualification will work or how many slots would be allocated to each region. It will serve as a climax to the Nations League though, so it is likely the winner of each respective league will qualify for the new competition.

Infantino still hasn’t been able to roll out his Nations League reform worldwide but European body UEFA and their North American counterparts CONCACAF have already set up leagues in their regions.

The Nations League will see all international teams separated into leagues, in a format similar to domestic football. Teams are allocated a league based on their FIFA World Ranking, with a cycle of promotions and relegations at the end of each season.

Leagues are broken into four mini-leagues, with the winner of each competing in a playoff to determine the overall league champion. 

Whilst specific details are still unknown, it is believed that any governing body that doesn’t adopt the Nations League approach, would be ineligible for qualification to the new competition.

Plans are still very much a formative phase, the letter in question is actually no more than a proposal to FIFA’s decision-making Council. Infantino has had good success with his reforms so far though and looks likely to press ahead with this new idea.

[TCO]

So instead of winners of competitions people care about, it'll be winners of competitions people don't give a fuck about? Profit?

When is the 2021 Confederations cup? Is it Decemeber too so we can accomadate for the desert slavemasters?

[Adam]

Meddle, meddle, meddle. Must change every single competition just for the sake of it.

Only ever seems to be total cretins in charge of the sport.

[Lineker]

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Fifa inspectors have awarded North America’s 2026 World Cup bid a significantly higher score than Morocco in an evaluation report, and have warned voters that the North African nation’s bid is high risk due to a lack of infrastructure.

Up to 207 national associations will choose between the two bids in a public vote on 13 June that contrasts with the secrecy surrounding previous tainted World Cup decisions.

The report puts pressure on the Fifa congress to follow the verdicts from inspectors, who marked the joint bid from the US, Canada and Mexico at 402 out of 500 and flagged Morocco’s proposals on stadiums, accommodation and transport as high risks in a score of 275.

The five-person Fifa-appointed task force said it “considers it its duty to emphasise the significant overall risk” of a country needing to build so many key assets, concluding that the bids are at “almost opposite ends of the spectrum”.

The 2026 World Cup is the first tournament Fifa has confirmed will expand from 32 to 48 teams – putting increasing demands on the stadiums and facilities required to stage 80 games.

“The amount of new infrastructure required for the Morocco 2026 bid to become reality cannot be overstated,” the bid evaluation task force said.

No part of North America’s proposals were labelled high risk and Fifa said it “has a clear lead” to advance the governing body’s mission to “push new boundaries in terms of sports-related technology and engagement” since stadiums and hotels already exist.

The US, which hosted the 1994 World Cup, would host 60 games in 2026, including everything from the quarter-final stage. Mexico, the sole host in 1970 and 1986, would have 10 games, along with Canada.

The North American bid scored the only maximum mark of five from Fifa for its ticketing and hospitality plans, which helped drive a forecast revenue for the tournament of $14.3 billion, “significantly higher” than Morocco’s $7.2 billion.

The lowest mark out of five for either bid in each of the nine categories was 2.0, for North America’s projected organisation costs – driven up by having 16 stadiums instead of the minimum 12. Morocco had three high-risk sections and 10 marked as medium risk – including human rights and labour standards.

While Morocco has said it needs to spend almost $16 billion on infrastructure for the tournament, including building or renovating all 14 stadiums, refurbishment is required at only six North American venues.

“Accommodation was assessed as being the largest challenge facing the Morocco 2026 bid,” the bid evaluation report said. “Only two of the 14 proposed stadiums would have sufficient levels of general accommodation to meet the minimum requirements.”

The Fifa evaluation also confirmed reports in April that Morocco did not declare its anti-LGBT law to the governing body in the human rights risk assessment included with the bid.

The North American campaign has been dogged by questions on the impact of policies from the Trump administration, including attempts to implement a travel ban on residents of six majority-Muslim countries. The US bid team have offered fresh guarantees to Fifa that there will be no discrimination around entry for the tournament.

In appeals for votes last month, President Donald Trump said he would be “watching very closely” and issued a veiled threat to withhold support from countries opposing the North American bid.

Fifa ordered more rigorous inspections after criticism of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes in 2010, when Russia and Qatar won despite being judged the riskiest by a task force. Morocco could have been disqualified if it had scored less than two out of five in the overall average scoring.

The Fifa council has to approve both candidates at a meeting in Moscow on 10 June, before the final vote at the Fifa congress on the eve of the 2018 tournament.

[MDK]

You know he took some pelters after that,

[Lineker]

Beautiful kit.

[TCO]

World Cup kits in general this year are so fucking class. Nigeria, Beligum, Spain, Japan and South Korea all have absolute belters!

[Lineker]

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Olympic and World Cup champion Hope Solo wants her country to lose one of its biggest soccer contests: Fifa’s vote on the 2026 World Cup host.

“I can’t say it should be awarded to Morocco,” Solo told the Associated Press. “But I don’t think it should go to the United States, and that’s hard to say.”

By choosing to actively campaign against the US-led North America bid, Solo risks alienating herself further from the soccer community in her homeland. The bid leadership was exasperated when informed Solo was undermining their efforts heading into next Wednesday’s vote, dismissing her criticism of the governance of soccer but declining to go on the record in detail.

This is not an isolated eruption against US Soccer. After 202 international appearances, a record for an American goalkeeper, Solo was fired over an outburst at the 2016 Olympics against the opposition and a series of off-the-field controversies. In an attempt to take control of the organization that ostracized her, Solo ran for the US Soccer Federation (USSF) presidency in February. Solo garnered only 1.4% of the vote to finish last out of five candidates.

Her stance is a counterpoint to the championing of the North American World Cup bid by David Beckham in a video released by MLS, where the former England captain is launching a team in Miami. That is only possible because Beckham secured a cut-price deal for an expansion franchise as part of his contract to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

“That is not helping the sport in America,” Solo said. “I want to see promotion-relegation in the NASL and the MLS. Right now it’s true, you have rich ownership groups owning MLS teams and they’re only getting richer and they’re alienating everybody else.

“A new ownership group can’t just come in and purchase a team even though they have the financial security, even though they have the commitment. It’s controlled by those single individuals at Soccer United Marketing, MLS in particular, [Commissioner] Don Garber.”

MLS stridently defended itself against Solo’s criticism, saying team owners have invested more than $3bn in stadium and training facilities to grow the sport because it’s a closed league.

“The structure that we have has given owners certainty to make that type of investment,” MLS deputy commissioner Mark Abbott told the AP. “Had we had a system of promotion and relegation it would not have been possible to generate that level of investment from owners, local communities or private banks that help to fund some of these facilities.”

Up to 207 soccer federations will vote next Wednesday in Moscow on whether North America or Morocco should host the 2026 World Cup, or the bidding should be reopened by choosing “none of the above.”

“Hopefully Fifa can stand up and step in and say, ‘If we’re going to reward you, let’s look at everything and point out where you can fix certain things,”’ Solo said.

[Lineker]

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The race to host the 2026 World Cup finals was too close to call, according to Fifa insiders, as Morocco received a late boost to their hopes with the expectation that four US territories will abstain from voting on Wednesday.

The so-called united bid of the USA, Mexico and Canada is the technically safer option and definitely more attractive financially to the voting federations but that may not be enough to carry them over the line. Their position was weakened by the expectation that four US territories at the centre of a voting row will not take part.

Morocco has been pressing Fifa for several weeks to intervene and exclude the US-governed territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands because of a perceived conflict of interest.

This is the first World Cup vote since England endured a shock defeat in the contest to host the 2018 finals when Russia and Qatar were picked to host consecutive tournaments despite being vastly weaker on paper.

The subsequent revelations of widespread corruption within the world governing body mean the landscape is very different this time, including the fact that it will be an open vote.

It is expected that 201 of Fifa’s 211 member federations will vote at the annual congress at Moscow’s Expocentre on Wednesday. The four bidding nations are excluded and Ghana and Kosovo are understood not to have sent representatives.

[Adam]

I hope Morocco get it if only so we're not stuck watching the matches in the middle of the night.

Thanks to that Qatar nonsense this is the next World Cup we'll get to watch at the proper time of year after this year .

[Baddar]

Just checked on Google and apparently they're only 3 hours ahead of GMT? Might not be too bad. It's certainly better than night games in the US would be.

Edit: I read it again. Never mind.

[MDK]

 

[Lineker]

The North American bid has won the rights to host the 2026 World Cup.

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The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico after they beat Morocco by a margin of 69 votes to host the tournament which will be expanded to 48 teams for the first time.

The Moroccan bid used its final address to Fifa congress to point out the country has a ban on weapons and would not hike up ticket prices to increase profit, a thinly veiled swipe at its rivals. But it was not enough to sway the room as it lost the vote, with the United 2026 bid receiving 134 votes to its 65.

The United States-led bid was judged by a Fifa taskforce to be vastly superior to its north African rivals on technical grounds, with a total of 23 stadiums, already built or under construction, at its disposal. Morocco, while enticing some federations with its commitment to fan engagement in a footballing nation, would have had to build or renovate all of the 14 stadiums in its bid book.

That difference – alongside the promise of £4bn in extra profit for the federations – was enough to convince some undecided voters to side with the United 2026 campaign, which opened its final 15-minute pitch by handing the stage to Alphonso Davies, a 17-year-old Canadian born in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana. “In Canada, they’ve welcomed me and I know they’ll welcome you,” he said.

Of 211 federations, 203 submitted a vote. That number accounted for the four bidding nations who were ineligible, plus three American-governed territories who abstained because of a perceived conflict of interest plus Ghana, who did not attend congress after corruption allegations. The way the federations voted was made public for the first time, perhaps the most surprising revelation being Russia voting for the United 2026 bid despite political tensions between the nations.

The Fifa heirarchy, including the president, Gianni Infantino, preferred the North American bid which has promised to generate around an $11bn (£8.24bn) profit for Fifa compared to the projected $5.7bn (£4.48bn) a Morocco World Cup would raise. The Moroccans had been keen to emphasise its more fan-friendly pricing in contrast with the United 2026 bid which stated an average ticket price of $431 (£322), a significant increase on the Brazil and Russia World Cups.

It was the first World Cup vote since 2010, when the FA suffered humiliation after Russia won the right to host the 2018 tournament. Allegations of corruption immediately followed that vote with Qatar securing the 2022 event. The prospect of a more controversy-free World Cup also swayed Fifa in favour of the United 2026 bid.

Infantino took the opportunity to claim the Fifa landscape has drastically changed since he succeeded Sepp Blatter. “It was clinically dead when I took over two years ago,” he said. “Now it is alive. There are no longer additional costs in the balance sheet.”

Proceedings at congress, held at Moscow’s Expocentre on the outskirts of the city centre, came to an unexpected halt halfway through as Infantino announced the arrival of Vladimir Putin. Most of the hall rose to their feet to greet the arrival of the Russian president but the FA delegation, led by the chief executive, Martin Glenn, remained seated. Putin offered little alternative to David Gill, the English Fifa council member, but to shake his hand as he made his way along the line of those on the stage.

Eight years ago when Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup in Zurich, Putin spoke mainly in English as he thanked the audience “from the bottom of my heart”. He struck a different, more serious tone this time round although he was full of praise for Infantino, calling him a “good front man and true fighter”. Infantino responded in kind, thanking Putin “on behalf of the entire world of football ... from the bottom of our heart a big thank you for your engagement, for your passion, for really making us feel part of the same team”.

Putin closed his speech by saying in English: “Welcome to Russia.”

[Adam]

Time to start planning for an England 2030 bid then!

Or Australia. I'd love a World Cup in Australia.

[Lineker]

The final at MetLife in New York is going to be spectacular.

[Lineker]

As promised, Fifa has released all the votes publicly after the conclusion of balloting:

[Gazz]

25 minutes ago, Switzerlineker said:

The final at MetLife in New York is going to be spectacular.

When England captain Lewis Cook lifts the trophy?

[Lineker]