While Gianni Infantino pulls all possible strings to advance the idea of a World Cup every two years, Aleksandr Ceferin and Alejandro Dominguez are not standing still and announced on Tuesday a project they have been working on for years: a match between the winner of the European Championship and the winner of the Copa America.
Thus, Italy and Argentina will have to face each other in a one-off with a date and venue to be defined, in a match that enters what FIFA considers its territory, that of clashes between different confederations.
Under the seemingly innocuous heading “CONMEBOL and UEFA extend their cooperation,” the Asuncion- and Nyon-based bodies signed a joint communiqué that is of enormous political power, a challenge to Zurich.
“CONMEBOL and UEFA have today announced the extension of their current cooperation, as well as the organization of a match between the winner of the CONMEBOL Copa America 2021, Argentina, and the winner of Euro 2020, Italy, during the international window of June 2022 at a venue to be confirmed,” the press release reads in its first paragraph.
But the matter does not end there: “The agreement reached by both organizations currently covers three editions of this match between the respective continental winners, and also includes the opening of a joint office in London, which will be responsible for coordinating projects of common interest”.
The final part of the agreement is a challenge to FIFA, the world soccer governing body, which historically does not allow interference in its area.
“With this agreement, CONMEBOL and UEFA express their commitment to the development of soccer beyond their geographical areas, as a bridge that unites people, countries, continents and cultures. The CONMEBOL Council and the UEFA Executive Committee also expressed their strong willingness to continue to collaborate on other matters of mutual interest in the future.”
Among the “other matters of mutual interest in the future” is FIFA president Infantino’s proposal that the World Cup be played every two years instead of every four years, as has been the case since its first edition in 1930.
Slovenia’s Ceferin and Paraguay’s Dominguez consider that Infantino’s proposal “devalues” the World Cup, but also attacks their own tournaments, the Copa America and the European Championship.
The other big loser is Thomas Bach’s International Olympic Committee (IOC), which sees directly threatened its two jewels, the Summer and Winter Games. Both would face in the same year the commercial competition and spectator interest that a World Cup implies.
FIFA is pursuing a broad consultation project that includes in the first instance various interest groups and not the six continental confederations.
The champions match between the winner of the European Championship and the winner of the Copa America is an idea that Dominguez and Ceferin have been talking about since 2017.
As Around the Rings was able to learn, both presidents also aspire to resurrect the Intercontinental Cup that was played for decades between the winner of the European Cup (today Champions League) and the winner of the Copa Libertadores. The realization of this project implies a direct challenge to the FIFA Club World Cup.
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