THE Confederation of African Football has become the first regional body to openly support the controversial proposal to play the senior World Cup every two years.
The senior men’s World Cup has been held every four years since its first edition in 1930, while the women’s version has followed the same path since it started in 1991.
However, the Gianni Infantino-led FIFA board has been campaigning for the World Cup to become more frequent, a proposal that has been heavily resisted by football associations across Europe and other parts of the world over concerns for the welfare of players.
But CAF, which has hardly ever challenged any move by Infantino’s FIFA, has thrown its weight behind the biennial proposal, which is enthusiastically fronted by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
The African body said after its congress on Friday that it had given its support to the “decision of the FIFA Congress to conduct a feasibility study” for a World Cup every two years.
It is not clear how a biennial World Cup will coexist with the various continental competitions, including CAF’s own Africa Cup of Nations, which is also held every two years, the the European Championship that comes up every four years and the Copa America.
Meanwhile, CAF has also moved the draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs.
The draw for the final round of the African qualifiers among 10 teams was earlier scheduled for 18 December but it will now be held on 26 January. The new date falls smack in the middle of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, which is scheduled for 9 January to 6 February, 2022.
The FIFA rankings for January will be used to determine the top five African teams that will be seeded for the draw.
As things stand, the Super Eagles are fifth in Africa and will be in the upper part of the draw along with Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
The bottom five for now are Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali and Democratic Republic of Congo.
