The storm of criticism against the World Cup plan was massive at Fifa's meeting with representatives of the national European football associations the other day and many nations say they are prepared to leave Fifa if they put the plan into action.
After Fifa's board meeting on Wednesday, chairman Gianni Infantino said that they will not present a proposal for a vote unless they are fully convinced that everyone in the football world will benefit from it.
- It has been Infantino's and Fifa's attitude all the way.
But if you want to be convinced that everyone should be a winner, then you have to present some form of material that also indicates that and there is nothing like that presented, Nilsson tells TT.
- It probably needs a radical change in the thoughts that have been presented if it is to be possible to come up with a proposal that everyone should benefit from.
This is the work that is going on now and we must be optimistic and hope and believe that this dialogue and the consultations that are taking place now, will lead to a very changed proposal.
Asia is following suit
Sweden and the other Nordic football associations have in a letter to Fifa criticized the World Cup proposal which they believe would cannibalize at well-functioning championships such as the European Championships for women and men.
The European and South American football federations have clearly stated that they are against the World Cup every two years.
- And it seems that even the Asian unions have now more followed the UEFA and South America line that they do not want any kind of vote without us having to reason and discuss this, Nilsson says.
New proposals will be discussed
At Fifa's meeting on December 20, there will thus be no vote on the World Cup proposal.
Instead, that proposal, and new proposals for possible changes in world football, will be discussed.
During the past week, proposals have emerged for two World Cups, which were to be held every two years but with different participants.
An idea has also been put forward for a global variant of the European national team tournament Nations League.
- All such thoughts that come up must be analyzed in more depth the consequences of.
That is what this whole consultation aims at, to listen in and see and analyze and then you have to come back in December with a proposal, says
Nilsson on Fifa's work until the December meeting.
TT: Will Sweden contribute to any proposal?
- We work together with the European unions.
It is important to be constructive in this discussion to see if we can find something that can contribute to this.
That work is ongoing, he says.
The European Football Association's (UEFA) attitude right now is that the championships will continue to be played every four years.
ARCHIVE: Debated proposal: WC every other year (14/9 2021)
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.
Read more about browser support
Fifa has proposed to hold the World Cup every other year Photo: Bildbyrån / TT