Ceferin condemns FIFA’s biennial World Cup plans as threat to game’s jewel

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin on Monday said that holding the World Cup every two years, as Arsene Wenger has recently suggested, would "dilute" the tournament.

Former Arsenal boss Wenger, who is now director of development at FIFA, on Saturday called for football's showpiece competition to become a biennial event.

The World Cup has been held every four years, besides cancellations during World War II, since the inaugural edition in 1930.

"We think that the jewel of the World Cup has value precisely because of its rarity," Ceferin said at a general assembly of the European Club Association.

"But holding it every two years, will by our opinion, lead to more randomisation, less legitimacy, and it will unfortunately dilute the World Cup itself.

"The international match calendar does not need that. Our players don't need to see more of their summers spent on consuming tournaments rather than devoted to relaxing and recuperation."

UEFA has long been against a more frequent World Cup and earlier this year announced a revamped version of its Nations League tournament, with 100 more matches per season.

However, FIFA's plan received wide support from its member associations, with four federations in South Asia joining the bandwagon recently.

Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka said in a joint statement that they were among the 166 national federations who voted in favour at the congress.

"Four-year gaps between FIFA World Cup is too great – and the window of opportunity too small – to preclude whole generations of talent," the federations said.

"Less than a quarter of current AFC member associations have been represented in almost a century of FIFA World Cup finals in a situation where these tournaments are the real drivers of development."

The AFC is guaranteed four automatic spots and an intercontinental play-off slot in the men's 2020 World Cup alongside tournament hosts Qatar.