At the Doha Exhibition Center, under a huge rotating mobile adorned with the flags of the 211 federations affiliated with Fifa, the delegates took their places for this meeting finally organized in situ after two successive editions by videoconference due to the pandemic.

Playing appeasement before Friday's draw for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18), the international federation evaded its proposal to double the frequency of its premier competition from 2026, which had stirred up revolt among big clubs or supporters.

"What is most important is that the world football community is united. Despite all our differences, we are all here," said Gianni Infantino.

The agenda of this 72nd Congress is very classic, between budget vote and speech by President Infantino, who completes his second term in 2023 and has not said whether he intends to stand for a third and final term of four years.

In this context, and as the electoral period began on Thursday until the vote organized at the 73rd Congress next year, the time does not seem to be for divisive proposals for the Italian-Swiss leader, which currently has no declared major opponent.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino speaking during the 72nd Congress of the body in Doha, March 31, 2022 FRANCK FIFE AFP

The reform of the men's and women's international calendar by 2024 remains a pressing issue.

But the body based in Zurich did not put the subject to the vote, or even on the menu of the debates, seeming to give up going through force.

front of refusal

Something to delight the detractors of a biennial World Cup, the powerful UEFA in the lead.

The president of the European confederation Aleksander Ceferin said he was convinced that the project, which directly threatens the lucrative Champions League, is now "excluded".

Organizing a major competition alternately every summer, World or continental event (Euro, Copa America ...), would indeed upset an ecosystem punctuated every four years by the World Cup, since 1930 for men and 1991 for women .

And would threaten the landscape of world sport more broadly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) being concerned to see the round ball encroaching on other disciplines.

Al Rihla ("the journey"), name of the official ball for the FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar (November 21-December 18, 2022) and the names of previous balls Valentin RAKOVSKY AFP

For its part, Fifa promised in December more "solidarity" income to each of its federations if the reform is successful, securing the support of African and Asian federations fearing a widening of inequalities in the face of extremely wealthy European football, which fears for its part of the infernal cadences for its players.

Gather the soccer family

It will be necessary to see what direction the reform of the calendar now takes: some evoke a return of the Confederations Cup, a mini-tournament with eight selections disputed between 1992 and 2019, or an enlargement to the American teams of the League of Nations, created in 2018 by UEFA.

Fifa's decline in this matter may indicate that Infantino wants to bring together the football family, which has been hard hit in recent months, between the Covid-19 pandemic, the aborted project of a dissident Super League of clubs and the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Faced with the Russian offensive launched in February on Ukrainian soil, the international federation took a resounding decision by excluding the Russian national team from the race for the World Cup-2022.

Seized by the Russian Federation (FRU), the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) provisionally validated this decision, pending a decision on the merits of the case.

Some voices are even calling for the suspension of the FRU from Fifa, a drastic measure that would do UEFA's business, faced with an embarrassing Russian bid to organize Euros 2028 and 2032.

"I think they should be excluded from this organization because they committed crimes, they used terror, they violated all the rules of civilization," said Andrii Kuzmenko, Ukraine's ambassador to Qatar, questioned before taking his place in the Congress amphitheatre.

President Gianni Infantino at the 72nd FIFA Congress in Doha, March 31, 2022 FRANCK FIFE AFP

The placement in alphabetical order earned him to sit three rows from the Russian delegates, symbol of one of the many fault lines that world football hopes to reduce.

jed-pel-as-ldn/mdm

© 2022 AFP