Visiting the stage of the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, President Jair Bolsonaro (no party) on Wednesday (17) gave his support to the idea of turning the competition into an event held every two years.
“I’ll give my opinion as a football team. The Cup every two years is welcome, it helps in the economic aspect. Four years is perhaps a little long,” said Bolsonaro, on arrival for a tour of the Lusail stadium, which is in final phase of construction and will be the main event of the tournament, which starts on November 21 of next year.
The reduction at half-time at the Worlds is a reason for the current FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, who was also present at the stadium and visited the arena with Bolsonaro.
A large part of the world football community, however, rejects the idea, as they believe it can devalue the sport’s main event. Furthermore, there are fears that a biennial Cup will further overload the club and national team calendar.
Bolsonaro, however, said he was in favor of the World Cup and a new Club World Cup interspersed, echoing Infantino’s defender.
“There came a proposal about the Club World Cup, perhaps along the same lines as the World Cup, there would be 24 clubs, or a little more. So we would always have one year for the World Cup and another for the Club World Cup,” he defended.
Bolsonaro stressed, however, that he is just making a personal guess, but that the Brazilian position will be given by the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation). “The CBF is going to give the north as to how we should proceed.”
In contact with journalists at the end of the visit, Infantino said that the idea remains open.
“We are in the middle of a consultation process. We are listening, consulting. Many are in favour, but the discussions are heated, as is always the case when talking about football,” he declared, who did not give a deadline for the end of this process.
With a capacity for 80 thousand spectators, the stadium is receiving the final touches. The entire structure is ready, with chairs, big screens, sound and light system, in addition to a temporary lawn.
All that remains is work around the arena, which should be officially ready in early 2022.
After the visit, Bolsonaro and members of his entourage hit the ball on the lawn, playing altinha and silly. The president and the two sons who accompany him on the trip took part in the game, senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Patriota-RJ) and federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), in addition to the national secretary of Culture, Mário Frias, of the minister of Tourism , Gilson Machado, and Infantino himself.
The president arrived at the stadium on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, repeating for the first time abroad the tours he takes when he is in Brazil. About ten motorcyclists accompanied him on the nearly hour-long journey that took him from his hotel to the stadium. He praised the country’s civility. “I didn’t see any graffiti walls along the way,” he declared.
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