During a recent interview with BeIN Sports, Arsene Wenger shared a dream project to shake-up international tournaments and their calendars.
Ever since he took the role of FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, Arsene Wenger has been trying to make profound modifications to international tournaments. The former Arsenal manager is convinced that tournaments such as the World Cup, European Championship, or the Copa America are too important to celebrate every four years. Too much takes place during that period of time and players are not the same when it happens.
His ambitious plan consists of trying to make these competitions happen every two years. In fact, the Copa America kind of already has this format but sometimes they take a four-year break. As far as the other two are concerned, Wenger knows that Europe is central to this organization. The way to make this happen is to completely eliminate lesser tournaments or international fixtures from the calendar. Only to leave these three competitions as the main focus for every national team.
Arsene Wenger’s full explanation.
“It’s my dream you know, it’s not a dream I share with many people at the moment but I just think I have the advantage of having worked in Japan,” Wenger told beIN SPORTS. “We played from March until November and it was perfect. You would not have anymore ‘he won the Championship in season 2018-19.’ No, the championship was won in 2018 or 2019 and in 2020. In fact, I believe as well, we have to re-organize completely the calendar. In FIFA, with [president Gianni] Infantino, we try to make meeting with all the stakeholders of the game to completely reorganise the calendar year, because you have to plan in the future where you may have to travel less.
“If you look at the teams in the World Cup, usually the average age is 27-28. That’s why, because the World Cup, is every four years there are very few chances to win it again because when they go back to the next World Cup they are 32 or 33. That’s why maybe we should organize the World Cup every two years and the European Championship every two years and kick all the rest out. Organize only competitions of meaning and kick all the parallel competitions out of the game. People must understand what is at stake and only have games with meaning.”
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