THE Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation has unanimously endorsed the position of its President, Amaju Pinnick, in support of a two-year senior FIFA World Cup cycle, the NFF stated on Friday.
The men’s World Cup has been held every four years since its first edition in 1930, but FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed a switch to every two years to the Congress three months ago.
At a meeting held via video conference, the NFF board backed Pinnick and agreed that the 166 countries that already supported the idea (out of FIFA’s 211 members) were in order.
President of the Confederation of African Football, Dr Patrice Motsepe, and football legends Lothar Matthaeus of Germany and Gary Lineker of England are among the leading campaigners to change the competition to a biennial event.
“With the World Cup being played every four years, the opportunity to have this experience is too rare and spread over too great a time,” Pinnick told cajnewsafrica on Friday.
“Whole generations of players miss out, sometimes because of one match potentially decided by one incident…the World Cup is played every four years for historic reasons linked with the Olympic cycle…it has been like this for almost 100 years…we can add one more month every four years to organize the most beautiful competition in the world and find ways to protect the players, clubs, leagues, federations and Confederations’ interests and this is neither irrational nor absurd.
“It is a fact that competing at the highest level helps the less developed countries to raise their level. It increases their experience and helps them to learn from mstakes. It is also a key way to bring a country and its key stakeholders behind an objective; including the fans, the sports authorities and also governments.”
The NFF president, who is also a member FIFA Council that is the highest decision-making organ for world football, adds that a two-year World Cup will bring positive changes in many forms, including infrastructural development with many new countries improving their sporting facilities in a bid to play host to the tournament.
He said: “In 91 years of the FIFA World Cup, only eight coutries in all have emerged winners. With a two-year cycle, that number would be overtaken quickly.
“Also, we had a great player like George Weah who couldn’t play in the FIFA World Cup, ditto for Abedi Pele and Anthony Yeboah. African superstars like Jay Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu could only play in three and Lucas Radebe played in only two.
“A player of Hadji Diouf’s quality played in only one. With a two-year World Cup, players would have more opportunities.”
The other FIFA tournaments, apart from the senior men’s and women’s World Cups, are held every two years.
Many opponents of the two-year World Cup cycle claim it will reduce the allure of the tournament and make it less important.
Also, with different continental tournaments, their qualifying matches and other events, a biennial World Cup would clog the football calendar further, its opponents insist.
