World Cup and Club World Cup expansion shows ‘complete disregard’ for leagues by FIFA, says LaLiga | Football News

FIFA has proven “complete disregard” for the significance of nationwide competitions by approving a 32-team Club World Cup and an expanded World Cup, in response to LaLiga.

Ahead of its congress in Kigali, Rwanda, FIFA introduced on Tuesday that the 2026 World Cup may have 104 matches as an alternative of the present 64 video games because of the expanded format with 48 groups participating.

The governing physique additionally greenlit an enlarged Club World Cup which can be performed each 4 years from June 2025.

But the selections had been criticised by LaLiga, with the Spanish prime flight saying: “FIFA continues its malpractice of making unilateral decisions on the world football calendar, showing complete disregard for the importance of national championships and the football community in general.

“FIFA utterly neglects the financial injury these choices inflict on leagues world wide. Leagues weren’t consulted about any of the adjustments offered at present, particularly concerning the new annual membership competitors.

“These decisions do not take into account the competitive, sporting and economic impact on national leagues, clubs and players by further cramming an already overloaded schedule. FIFA only takes into account a small group of clubs and players.”

LaLiga added it and different leagues within the World Leagues Forum (WLF), an organisation representing skilled affiliation soccer leagues, would “analyse FIFA’s decisions and decide on the most appropriate next steps”.

In December, the WLF criticised the creation of a 32-team Club World Cup, saying it might have damaging penalties for the soccer economic system and participant welfare.

PFA: Schedule impacting gamers’ wellbeing

The Professional Footballers’ Association additionally hit out on the adjustments, with Maheta Molango, the union’s chief govt, saying: “Fundamentally, the football calendar needs a complete reset.

“The expanded World Cup format being introduced for 2026 signifies that, but once more, extra video games are being pressured into an already overcrowded schedule.

“It is right that FIFA have listened to players’ concerns and announced a working group to address the critical issues surrounding fixture congestion and player welfare.

“However, it’s totally tough to see how that aligns with the fixed expansion of the home and worldwide calendar.

“We know that the current workload players face is having an ongoing impact on their wellbeing, both on and off the pitch. We can’t simply push them until they break.”

The revamped match calendars had been permitted by the FIFA council, the primary decision-making physique of the world soccer organisation which has 37 members, together with president Gianni Infantino and 28 others elected by member associations.

How will the 2026 World Cup work?

The 2026 event within the United States, Mexico and Canada may have 12 teams of 4 groups. The prime two groups will advance to a spherical of 32 with the eight finest third-placed groups.

FIFA had been contemplating a format of 12 teams of three groups however the pleasure generated by the normal four-team group format used within the Qatar World Cup has helped to persuade the FIFA Council to stay with four-team teams.

The mixed variety of relaxation, launch and event days stays the identical as earlier World Cups in 2010, 2014 and 2018 – 56 days.

It means groups reaching the ultimate will now should play eight matches, relatively than the seven performed by Qatar 2022 finalists Argentina and France.

The remaining within the United States is because of be on Sunday July 19, 2026.

Why FIFA had a ‘rethink’ over World Cup format

Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:

“FIFA had a problem because this is going to be the first World Cup with 48 teams so they were trying to work out how it was going to be organised.

“It was going to be 16 teams of three groups and you possibly can have had the state of affairs the place two groups would have solely performed two video games earlier than being knocked out and going dwelling.

“FIFA had a rethink, which was accelerated by the World Cup in Qatar. FIFA thought the Qatar World Cup was exciting – there was so much jeopardy and so much at stake.

“That’s why they’ve had a have a look at it once more and at this FIFA Council assembly in Rwanda, it’ll be formally permitted.

“A lot of traditionalists will say they are unhappy with 48 teams because it is too many teams and the quality is going to suffer. It is also bad for the environment having more teams flying around Mexico, Canada and the USA.

“The different argument, although, is that FIFA is product of 211 completely different nations and of these nations solely 78 have ever performed within the World Cup, so that they have been lobbying FIFA to say they should have an opportunity to play within the World Cup in any other case their requirements of soccer aren’t going to enhance.

“If you look at the slot allocation, at the World Cup in Qatar we only had five countries from Africa even though there are 54 African countries that are members of FIFA.

“Their slot allocation goes to go up from 5 to 9, there are actually going to be eight groups from Asia, six groups from CONCACAF so in the event you take off your blinkers and have a look at soccer not simply from a western European perspective, the remainder of the world – properly, the folks I communicate to – do like that the World Cup can be expanded and it actually would be the World Cup.”