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Twice as nice Blatter hangs on to dream of World Cup every 2 years
Posted: Wednesday December 29, 1999 02:59 PM
ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter is hanging on to his dream of a World Cup every two years, saying that progress in coordinating international match schedules might make it possible. In a statement released Wednesday, Blatter said that "enormous progress" has been made in the past year toward harmonizing overcrowded soccer fixture lists. "The value of this work will be revealed in the near future when 195 teams embark upon well over 700 World Cup qualifying matches," Blatter said in reference to the 2002 finals, which are to be hosted by Japan and South Korea. "Over 80 percent of these matches will be scheduled to take place on coordinated dates, thus ensuring that clubs will not be deprived at different times of their key players being called up for national duty abroad." "If the harmonization of the international calendar eventually results in the World Cup becoming twice as frequent as present, then so be it, as I continue to believe that this idea is worthy of further consideration." "If not, then we shall have lost nothing -- on the contrary we shall have succeeded in overcoming a major logistical problem in the organization of modern top-class football," he said. It was a year ago that Blatter floated his idea of holding the lucrative World Cup every two years. After furious criticism from some national associations and continental federations, epecially UEFA, the plan was shelved. There is mounting unhappiness, especially among players, at the ever-increasing number of club and national competitions. Critics say key players have to miss international matches because of clashes with club fixtures and are more prone to injury because of too much competition. Blatter wants to harmonize the international calendar so that all domestic league seasons would run from February to November.
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