LAUSANNE, Switzerland —
FIFA on Monday vowed to hand over
an extra $19 million every four years to each of its 211 member federations if
world football's governing body succeeds in its attempts to hold the
World Cup
as a biennial event.
اضافة اعلان
The body on Monday held a virtual global
summit to discuss its highly controversial plans to stage the World Cup every
two years instead of the current four-year cycle, as part of a new
international match calendar for the period beyond 2024.
Its economic arguments had not previously
been explicitly stated, but FIFA will hope the numbers can at least persuade
smaller nations to get behind the plans.
If the World Cup is held every two years, an
independent report by market researchers at Nielsen estimated that
approximately $4.4 billion of additional revenues would be generated over four
years.
The report also suggested that income from
gate receipts, media rights and sponsorship for a 48-team tournament -- as the
World Cup is set to become from 2026 -- could increase from seven billion
dollars to $11.4 billion, a rise of more than 60 percent.
By creating a "Solidarity Fund" of
some $3.5 billion in the first four years of the reformed calendar, FIFA
estimates it could allocate "around $16 million" to every federation
over that period, it said.
In addition to that, FIFA also plans to
increase funding via its FIFA Forward program by three million dollars from the
current six million dollars to nine million.
A report commissioned by
European football's
governing body UEFA recently estimated a shortfall of between 2.5 and three
billion euros ($2.8 to 3.4 billion) over four years for European federations if
FIFA adopts its controversial plan.
Meanwhile, the
World Leagues Forum, which
represents 42 member leagues across the globe, estimated that domestic
competitions stood to lose a combined $8.5 billion if FIFA gets its way.
According to an independent report by Open
Economics, shared by FIFA, "historical revenue trends of the most relevant
clubs and national teams final tournaments show no apparent rivalry between the
two".
However, that report did not advance any
figures.
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