{"id":84741,"date":"2021-08-14T01:47:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T00:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=84741"},"modified":"2021-08-14T01:47:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T00:47:09","slug":"nigeria-joins-crusade-for-biennial-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/nigeria-joins-crusade-for-biennial-fifa-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria Joins Crusade For Biennial FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m-5037167644093173643\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prospect of the World Cup happening with greater frequency is gaining further traction, with the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick adding his voice to those in favour.<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nPinnick was during the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Friday where it was the Board unanimously endorsed the position of its President in support of a two-year FIFA World Cup cycle, tabled before the FIFA Congress at its meeting three months ago by FIFA President, Gianni Infantino.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a fact that competing at the highest level helps the less developed countries to raise their level,\u201d said President Pinnick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt increases their experience and helps them to learn from mistakes. It is also a key way to bring a country and its\u2019 key stakeholders behind an objective; including the fans, the sports authorities and also governments. When people can see that a result is achievable, that it\u2019s realistic, and that everyone can commit seriously to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the World Cup being played every four years the opportunity to have this experience is too rare and spread over too great a time. Whole generations of players miss out, sometimes because of one match, potentially decided on one incident. If you lose the first two matches of a qualifying phase you know that you have missed your chance for the next six or seven years at least!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Traditionalists could be loyal to the view of World Cups taking place in four-year cycle but Pinnick challenges those to be forward thinkers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe World Cup is played every four years for historic reasons linked with the Olympic cycle,\u201d Pinnick added. It has been like this for almost 100 years. We cannot stand still and say \u201cit was always like this so it should remain this way\u201d. To say this is absurd. We can add one more month every four years to organize the most beautiful competition in the world and find ways to protect the players, clubs, leagues, federations and Confederation\u2019s interests and this is neither irrational nor absurd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes sense every way we look at it. The World Cup every two years will not lose prestige and global audiences will still stop to see the spectacle. People need to come out of their comfort zone. The world is moving at incredible speed and football needs to adapt. The quality and appetite for a great competition doesn\u2019t come from the fact that it\u2019s rare. The FIFA Confederations Cup was played every four years and it wasn\u2019t really significant. On the other hand, we have the AFCON played every two years and Africa stops to see it with incredible passion. And we can still keep playing it every two years!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ufffc<br \/>\nAt the 71st FIFA Congress held in May 2021, 166 federations voted in favour of a motion requesting a feasibility study to halve the traditional four-year cycle of both men\u2019s and women\u2019s flagship tournaments and Pinnick is looking forward to seeing its results, whilst urging some reluctant European voices to unite with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would definitely like to see the results of the feasibility study that FIFA was asked to do by 166 countries, which I\u2019m sure included many Europeans\u201d, Pinnick continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe European confederation shouldn\u2019t be afraid to join the rest of the World. This is a big chance for so many less-developed countries and it\u2019s time for Europe to show true solidarity with Africa. I know Ars\u00e8ne Wenger is leading a comprehensive consultation in which he is listening to all the stakeholders, including players, coaches and fans, federations and confederations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m ready and willing to participate in that consultation and, in my opinion, the reorganisation of the International Match Calendar is extremely important to drive development of men\u2019s, women\u2019s and youth football in Africa and across the world.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-footer spacer collapsible\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The prospect of the World Cup happening with greater frequency is gaining further traction, with the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick adding his voice to those in&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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