FIFA continues to push, players continue to disagree. The controversial plan to play the World Cup every two years is an idea which has been aggressively promoted in the last year, with president Gianni Infantino and former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger at the forefront. On the opposite side are the players, who have different reasons for being against it. The usual answer, and the most logical one is that football calendar is already crowded, due to various competitions and that player’s health will suffer if another major tournament is played in a shorter period. Mbappe speaks out against Infantino’s plans for World Cups every two years pic.twitter.com/dNpPNLy0ws— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) December 27, 2021 Off course, there are other issues, like the quality of the competition which will be played every two, instead of every four years. And another top two players, Kylian Mbappe and Robert Lewandowski recently spoke about this issues, and off course, are against FIFA’s idea. Both men spoke at the Globe Soccer Awards, where Mbappe was named men’s player of the year. “It’s amazing. It’s an event you might only compete in once in a lifetime. It’s so special because it is every four years and if you play it every two years you’ll make it feel more like an everyday experience. If you want to give supporters something special you need to make them wait. People want quality and high emotions, if you do the World Cup every two years, the level will drop” said Mbappe.Wenger on football changes: ’I’m ready to take the gamble’And the Frenchman got the full support from another great striker, Robert Lewandowski. Bayern Munich star is well known for his physical perfection. He is 33, but rarely gets injured as he really looks after his body. But even he thought that it’s important to emphasize the problem of overcrowded calendar. “We have a lot of games in the year, very dense weeks. If you want to give the fans something different, you need a break. We have to look into the future, if we want to play a World Cup every two years, the level will drop. It’s impossible for the body and the mind to perform at the same level” said the Pole. Next year’s World Cup in Qatar is due to be the last with 32 teams before the competition expands to feature 48 nations from 2026.
