The football break only concerns the pitch. When the rivalry between the presidents of Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille reached a peak this weekend, the question of postponing Euro 2020 risks putting the International Football Federation (FIFA) face to face and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the two most powerful bodies in world football.
The European confederation gathers, Tuesday March 17 at 1 p.m. by videoconference, the 55 national member federations, the National Leagues and the representatives of the clubs and the players, to establish a new calendar of the competitions disturbed by the pandemic of coronavirus.
The priority of the leagues will be to obtain the postponement of the European championship scheduled in twelve cities from June 12 to July 12, in order to give yourself a chance to finish their championships and, possibly, the European Cups, by June 30, end of contracts which bind them to their players.
In this context of an extremely tight calendar – the last rounds of the national cups also remain to be played -, the Euro appears as the ideal victim of the date hunt which is now open.
According to Noël Le Graët, president of the French Football Federation (FFF) interviewed on TF1 on Sunday, " half (federations) want to play, the other half don't ". "It's important to have flexibility and work on different scenarios", tempers a European football executive.
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"No leader, whatever the size of his ego …"
At the last UEFA congress on 3 March in Amsterdam, when the coronavirus still seemed a distant threat, FIFA president Gianni Infantino had made divinatory remarks, speaking to his counterpart Aleksander Ceferin: "The international match calendar will be the topic we will have to look at for the future of football".
The debate will come sooner than expected: if the Euro is postponed to the summer of 2021, UEFA's plans will collide with those of FIFA, including the new “enlarged” Club World Cup formula is to be held in China at the end of next season, with 24 teams from all continents. Stuck after the final phase of the League of Nations, a new competition organized by UEFA … However, it is FIFA which has the last word on the calendar of international football.
This Club World Cup, which would take place every four years, is the personal project of Mr. Infantino. For two years, she has been the bone of contention in international football. UEFA, which fears for the status of its Champions League, does not want it; the big European clubs look first at the amount of the proposed check – eight of them should participate; and Conmebol (South American confederation) is skeptical.
In Amsterdam, Aleksander Ceferin replied to Infantino, who was UEFA general secretary for six years before taking the opportunity to succeed Sepp Blatter on the throne of world football: "Certain projects, sometimes conceived on other continents with the support of the governing bodies, are particularly worrying. "
Before improvising some pungent words, not written in the speech distributed to the press: "No football leader, no matter how large his ego, should consider us to be the stars of the show … The right of confederations to organize continental competitions is an inalienable right. "
" Two birds with one stone "
By proposing to shift his Euro by one year, in a context of health crisis and with the support of the biggest European clubs, Ceferin would put the boss of FIFA in a delicate situation.
“If it’s summer 2021, it’s killing the idea of the FIFA Extended Club World Cup, said a source close to UEFA. Two birds with one stone. And Ceferin knows it! It can end in a nuclear apocalypse, where the clubs are fed up… ”
Tuesday meeting participant feared "A provocation from UEFA". Aleksander Ceferin will he dare to improvise himself as savior of a football already threatened by the inflation of competitions – after all, does he not shift his flagship competition to preserve the championships? "When profit becomes alpha and omega, it's time to sound the alarm, said the Slovenian in his Amsterdam speech. Football is not a business like any other. "
A senior UEFA official suggests: "If the whole of football in Europe agrees on solutions to limit the damage, I doubt that FIFA has a problem. The atmosphere is constructive. It would be extremely stupid at such a time if FIFA were to follow a different path. "
The movement is all the more tempting as Gianni Infantino is struggling to advance his Club World Cup project, imagined in discretion two years ago. The crate on the calendar has already forced the African Cup of Nations to return in January next season, two years after it was organized in June. A step back that has not enchanted the European clubs where the best African players play.
FIFA seeks financial support
To encourage the big clubs to join its project, FIFA is looking for supporters with full pockets ready to join its new competition. According to an internal analysis revealed by the New york times in 2018, 650 million to one billion dollars are necessary to make the project financially profitable.
FIFA, announced the Times In February, he joined the services of an American firm to find a financial partner for his new competition. Worrisome, just over a year away from such an important competition.
Beyond UEFA, FIFA has alienated the South American Confederation by canceling, in February, a meeting of its council (government) to be held on March 20 in Paraguay. This meeting has been rescheduled by videoconference from FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
Five South American members of the FIFA Council were moved, in a scathing letter that The world bought it from Mr. Infantino and his secretary general, Fatma Samoura.
Chance or not, two weeks later, the president of the Conmebol, Alejandro Dominguez, was shooting with red balls on the project of Club World Cup, in the columns of the Financial times.
Asked about Tuesday's European meeting, FIFA – which ultimately postponed its board meeting "In June or July 2020" – did not act.
