CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez described as “a waste of time” the discussion about the biennial World Cup promoted by FIFA president Gianni Infantino and revealed that there is an agreement with UEFA to boycott the initiative.
“CONMEBOL is not going to play every two years and that is definitive… It is a ‘no go’, there is no possibility,” Domínguez said in a virtual interview with The Associated Press on Thursday from the organization’s headquarters in Paraguay. “He was born dead, we made it public from day one. It’s not that we’re just now saying it, it seems like a waste of time. It’s not supported by anything.”
Infantino argues that a more frequent World Cup will allow more countries to qualify and encourage more interest. It also promises that it would generate billions of dollars, which would increase the contributions received by the 211 member federations in order to promote football.
“If you don’t have European and South American teams, I doubt that you can achieve the billing that is proposed… I very much doubt that they will get the money they propose,” ventured the South American leader. When asked if this position was shared with UEFA, Domínguez replied that “(Aleksander) Ceferin (head of the organization) has the same position.”
The harmony between the two directors was evident two weeks ago when the European visited the CONMEBOL headquarters on the occasion of the celebration for the six years of Domínguez’s presidency. Both confederations advanced in strategic cooperation agreements.
The lack of support from the two confederations that have won all the World Cups since 1930 wrecked the vote on the proposal planned last December.
“We are going to respect the vote, but that does not mean that our position is going to change. The vote does not force us to play a World Cup every two years, that is not going to happen”, reiterated Domínguez. “It is not a negative against Gianni Infantino, it is not a position against Infantino. It is simply impossible to think that we can have a World Cup every two years.”
The South American director, who at the beginning of his administration in 2016 had supported the possibility of playing the World Cup every two years, used as the main argument for his rejection that “it would kill the Copa América. And the Copa América is a very important source of income for the member associations. They wouldn’t be equal if there was a World Cup every two years.”
“I think it would also lose the appeal of having a World Cup every four years, which is what the public wants and has been working for a long time. And as they say in football: ‘the team that wins doesn’t change’”, he concluded.
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