Future of Football: Javier Tebas exclusive interview - LaLiga president shares concerns over tournament expansions
As part of our 'Future of Football' series, Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett spoke to LaLiga president Javier Tebas to discuss the evolving football calendar...
Tuesday 8 August 2023 23:46, UK
LaLiga president Javier Tebas has told Sky Sports News he is preparing a legal challenge against FIFA's plans to expand its own competitions.
In an exclusive interview, Tebas says he is working with other international football organisations to fight FIFA's decision to expand the World Cup and Club World Cup.
The Club World Cup will be increased from seven to 32 teams from 2025, and the World Cup to 48 nations a year later, which Tebas says will put unbearable pressure on the football calendar, and severely damage European clubs' revenues.
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When asked 'can LaLiga mount a legal challenge to FIFA', Tebas responded by saying: "Well, it's not that we can, it's what we are going to do!
"In the World Leagues Forum, they're now carrying out a study on possible claims. And we are very clear on this - if it is not going to be led by the World Leagues Forum, LaLiga is going to take them [FIFA] to court.
"We are not going to wait for decisions from elsewhere. We are very clear that this is going to cause a lot of damage to the national leagues, and if we have to go to court by ourselves, we will do so, and that is it."
Asked directly what he thinks FIFA's motivation is, Tebas replied: "For FIFA it is only related to power. The Club World Cup - 85 per cent of the money they are getting in, they are going to distribute to the clubs, there is only going to be 15 per cent for the confederations and the organisers. So I don't think it's all about money necessarily, because FIFA deal with huge amounts of money.
"I think it's more a power issue. (Gianni) Infantino has long wanted this Club World Cup to compete with the Champions League, and so there's a difference in power between FIFA and UEFA because of that."
The LaLiga boss says that both FIFA and UEFA's expansion plans focus entirely on the elite clubs, and their worldwide commercial value. He says it does nothing to improve football as a whole.
"I think the key issue behind this is: we are managing the world football calendar for 300 elite players and 20 elite clubs. And we just can't do that. We have over 1,500 professional clubs and over 40,000 professional players, and we are just thinking about the elite, and not thinking about all those other professional footballers.
"What really worries us is that there is going to be a much bigger difference in the money received by bigger clubs compared with other clubs in those domestic leagues. They [FIFA] have to think about all the different effects, and maybe they should realise they shouldn't be doing this competition."
Tebas was then asked why he was adamant that FIFA's plans would affect the amount of money that LaLiga (and other European leagues like the Premier League) could generate.
"Because you have to play more matches during the week, which means our product is worth less," he explained. With more weekends taken up by FIFA competitions, he fears, domestic leagues like LaLiga and the Premier League will be forced to stage more matches in mid-week.
"You have to ask who voted for these changes, because I didn't vote for it," Tebas continues.
"The football industry in Europe and the world, the governance of it, has to change. The industry is not the same today as it was 15 years ago, especially the domestic leagues.
"There has to be agreement between the national leagues and institutions like UEFA and FIFA.
"For me, football needs to be better regulated by setting out agreements between domestic leagues and UEFA and FIFA, because we organise the competitions and we organise the calendars, and we want to make sure we don't damage each other.
When contacted by Sky Sports News, FIFA said its aim is to have more meaningful competitions while keeping players' welfare as the key priority.
Speaking in December, Gianni Infantino addressed the World Cup and Club World Cup expansions.
On the World Cup, he said: "We have approved a 48-team World Cup format with 16 groups of three, of which the top two would then move to a knockout phase of 32, followed by 16, eight, four and then two.
"I have to say that after this World Cup and the success of the groups of four, and looking as well at some other competitions like the Euros for example where you have 24 teams and the top two plus the best third ones go to the next stage.
"Here, the groups of four have been absolutely incredible in the sense that until the last minute of the last match, you wouldn't know who goes through. We will have to revisit or at least re-discuss the format - whether we go for 16 groups of three or 12 groups of four. This is something that will certainly be on the agenda in the next meetings."
On the Club World Cup, he said: "There will be a Club World Cup of 32 teams to be played every four years and the first edition will take place in 2025 in the summer.
"During that slot where in other years it would be the Confederations Cup, it will be slightly longer because there are 32 teams so it will last a bit longer but they will be the best teams in the world who will all be invited to participate.
"The FIFA Council has taken the decision now as a matter of principle to hold that Club World Cup. Don't forget that we were the only football organisation in the world, at least at international level, not to have organised a competition during the pandemic.
"Everyone else postponed their competitions but then shortened them or played them [at a later date] but we had a Club World Cup planned in 2020 with 24 teams that was cancelled. It wasn't replaced or postponed, and we did that because we wanted to allow for the Copa America, the European Championships and we wanted to protect the health and well-being of players.
"We didn't want to over-burden the calendar. That brings me to another issue and allows me to underscore that when we talk about the [FIFA] product over the next four years, the Club World Cup is not included in that $11bn forecast. That forecast is without taking into account this Club World Cup. So I think we're going to have an even greater sum that we'll be able to invest in world football over the next four years."
