A Fifa World Cup every two years just does not make sense

World football governing body Fifa has scheduled an online summit with the sport’s national bodies  to discuss holding a biennial World Cup.

 This radical proposal first came out officially on September 7 when former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, speaking as Fifa’s director of development, called for the quadrennial World Cup to be held once every two years.

Predictably, Europe, the soul and financial heart of football, strongly opposed such a change.

Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin said the World Cup would lose “legitimacy” if not held only once every four years.

Uefa raised serious fears over the dilution of the game’s showpiece event and also questioned the way Fifa was promoting these plans, largely through media interviews and press conferences.

The European Club Association (ECA), made up of close to 250 members from across the continent, hit out at Fifa for making such a plan. Acknowledging that changes were needed to make the international calendar “modernised and simpler”, ECA nevertheless blasted Fifa for the way it was introducing the proposal.

England coach Gareth Southgate said the World Cup could lose some of its lustre if it were held every two years. He also warned that other competitions would have to be sacrificed to make it happen.

Even supporters’ groups from across the globe have opposed the proposal arguing it will devalue the World Cup. They said they enjoyed watching the tournament once every four years and would not have the money to travel to different corners of the world every 24 months.

As one of the national team coaches used to tell us two decades ago during my rugby playing days, if a move works, keep using it again and again until it fails.

The World Cup has been successfully held every four year since the inaugural tournament in 1930 in Uruguay save for 1942 and 1946 because of World War II. This is a tradition that has indeed made the Fifa World Cup, the pre-eminent international football tournament, hugely anticipated by an infatuated humanity and the title intensely coveted by the contesting nations.

I mean, schools have rioted and local communities gone on the rampage for being denied a chance to watch the World Cup.

It is a big deal to be called the world champion of football. Only eight countries of a Fifa membership affiliation of 211 have earned that privilege from 21 tournaments held thus far.

So special is the Fifa World Cup, at least for those who follow football, yours truly included, that I can, from the back of my mind, name all the previous winners.

In fact, the reason the World Cup is so special is because it brings together the best football playing nations of the globe in a rare showdown that we witness every 48 months.

Why would someone want to change this?

The memorable, classic international matches have been eagerly waited for, and beautifully fought at the World Cup.

I was too young to watch live but I have viewed recorded action and read about the epic 1978 final at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires between a Marios Kempes-inspired Argentina against probably the world’s best team then, Holland.

Which lover of beautiful football can ever forget star-studded Brazil’s exciting but ultimately doomed campaign in 1982, at the hands of a Paulo Rossi-powered Italy and in 1986 against a Michel Platini-organised France. Efficient Germany’s upset of a purring Les Bleus in the 1986 semis was just…indescribable.

Indomitable Lions’ titanic clash with the Three Lions and their goal poacher Gary Lineker in the 1990 quarter-finals is still etched in my memory.

I was a secondary school boy then and I remember the boys telling the school administration that there would be dire consequences if we were not allowed to watch that match on the institution’s tiny black and white television set.

Bewitching tiki-taka Spain in 2010, I could go on: Brazil v Germany, Argentina v England, France v Italy, Spain v Portugal, Cameroon v Argentina, Germany v Holland, Nigeria v Italy et al.

Having these nations clashing once in a blue moon is what makes their meetings so alluring, so desirable. Imagine what would happen if these countries keep meeting every two years (and with the Uefa Nations League also in the calendar).

These classics would become common, ordinary fixtures. It is this dilution that Ceferin and many others are talking about.

Why do we love and desire money? Why do all the dashing young men in the kingdom want the beautiful princess’ hand in marriage? Why do all the eyes on the street turn to watch a sleek Lamborghini Veneno  Roadster roll by. Is it not because of scarcity?

Switching gears, interestingly, we have not heard any thoughts from African football leaders on the proposals. The voluble Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa has been studiously silent on this matter.

Logic points to little gain for Africa from a two-year World Cup. First, it will endanger the continent’s richest competition, the biennial Africa Cup of Nations.

Secondly, the perpetually broke African federations can hardly afford a World Cup every two years. Time after time, we see the FKF, begging bowls in tow, seeking funds to prepare Harambee Stars for international duty. Time and again, we read of the federation’s failure to pay national team player allowances, coach salaries, heck, hotel bills and air tickets.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino has promised a decision on the matter by the end of 2021.

I oppose the proposal.

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