{"id":833000,"date":"2026-07-30T07:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833000\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T07:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:47:09","slug":"fifa-plans-could-win-support-from-smaller-nations-football-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833000\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA plans could win support from smaller nations: Football expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2013 FIFA\u2019s controversial proposals to sell stakes in its major competitions<\/a> could win support from smaller nations attracted by a major funding boost, according to a football finance expert.<\/p>\n

Football\u2019s world governing body on July 28 announced plans to create a commercial subsidiary to run its biggest events, including the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The 2026 tournament in North America generated record revenues of US$15 billion (S$19.35 billion), around double the total from the Qatar tournament four years earlier.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s proposals, which would drive up revenues further, have been met with fierce criticism, notably from European governing body UEFA.<\/p>\n

However, smaller member associations stand to gain significantly from the plans \u2013 including a potential initial windfall of US$20 million each.<\/p>\n

Kieran Maguire, associate professor in football finance at the University of Liverpool, told Britain\u2019s PA Media that the extra money on offer would be attractive.<\/p>\n

And he believes the commercial incentives could make an expanded and more frequent World Cup more likely, just over a week after the end of the first 48-team tournament in North America.<\/p>\n

The possibility of increasing the number of teams involved to 64 appears to be on the agenda, while the previously rejected idea of a biennial tournament could resurface.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that it will be focusing mainly on making money, I think we\u2019d expect there to be an increased World Cup,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving it every two years and having it even bigger than it is now \u2013 more matches, more tournaments \u2013 means more money, and a lot of people will do well out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a move would be controversial. Proposals for a biennial World Cup have been explored before, but met with fierce opposition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It would require major changes to the football calendar and there would be significant concerns over player welfare.<\/p>\n

Maguire said: \u201cIf I\u2019m an investor putting money in, I want to get my money out as quickly as I can.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo therefore increasing the cycle of World Cups makes sense from the investor\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow it\u2019s going to fit in on the calendar, I don\u2019t know. If it\u2019s expanded further, the clubs won\u2019t be happy because their players have missed out on the pre-season training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can assure you the players\u2019 union will be opposed to it as well.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 FIFA\u2019s controversial proposals to sell stakes in its major competitions could win support from smaller nations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-833000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}