Whoever first said that expanding the football calendar is killing the game was right. And it’s not only because of the player’s fitness and health, it’s because of the current competition as well. All European and world executives see the most popular sport on the planet as the ‘milking cow’ that can get them more money, so they are now competing in adding new competitions or expanding current ones. The Champions League will be different from next season, with more games. The Conference League was established a few years ago, and then the UEFA’s Nation League. Gianni Infantino and his FIFA had to reply with another competition and it’s the expanded Club World Cup. And because of that, Africa’s biggest competition is in jeopardy.🚨 The date of the next AFCON is set to moved from July-August 2025 to December-January 2025/26 because of the new Club World Cup, which means it will overlap with Premier League’s Christmas schedule.(Source: @MiguelDelaney) pic.twitter.com/jUuvK1JgB4— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) June 18, 2024 Of course, there is no way that AFCON will be cancelled or anything, but Infantino’s new favourite competition is getting in the way and rescheduling the tournament is now imminent, which means trouble for African nations, whose players are in Europe, especially in the Premier League. Reports from England say that the plan is to move AFON to late December 2025 – January 2026 in order to squeeze in FIFA’s World Cup. But those dates are causing a triple problem. First of all, the Premier League has a tight December-January schedule (since they don’t have a break) and secondly, the new and expanded Champions League means that AFCON would be played during the competition’s rounds six and seven.2026 WCQ: CAF and FIFA confirm dates and kick off times for June qualifiersBut the worst of all is that if the AFCON is played during this period, the clubs would have a legal reason to prevent African footballers from leaving. The reason—FIFA rules.“It is not compulsory to release the same player for more than one “A” representative team final competition per year. Exceptions to this rule can be established by the FIFA Executive Committee for the FIFA Confederations Cup only” says the rule. And apart from AFCON, there is a much bigger competition in 2026 – the World Cup. So, FIFA can potentially make such a mess with its AFCON reschedule that they would need to change their own rule, but it’s a big question: would other countries and their clubs agree to that?Nigeria lost another gem – Folorunsho is with Italy at the EUROFifpro announced legal action against FIFA over unilateral decisions that affect the entire game. The primary concern is the expansion of the Club World Cup, which is set to become a 32-team tournament to be held in the USA in the summer of 2025. The widespread feeling among other stakeholders is that there is just no space for it in what is in effect a non-stop rolling calendar, but FIFA doesn’t seem to care. Infantino and his lieutenants are yet to answer about these concerns.##NAJAVA_MECA_8167953##
