Moya Dodd says World Cup expansion can aid global growth of football
Friday 13 January 2017 12:36, UK
Former FIFA executive Moya Dodd has welcomed the unanimous decision to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams.
FIFA’s Council approved the plan on Tuesday, featuring 16 groups of three followed by a 32-team knockout from 2026.
Dodd, who served on the game’s most powerful committee for three years until last year, believes expansion will benefit world football.
“I’m not sure that it was motivated by money,” Dodd told Sportswomen on Sky Sports News HQ, in an interview to be broadcast next Tuesday.
“You talk about money like it’s a bad thing in the game but, remember, one of FIFA’s most important functions is to recirculate, to redistribute, money that is made at the top end of the male professional game and recirculate it and distribute it all around the world.
“We’ve seen enormous progress in Africa and Asia, and all around the world, over the last twenty, thirty years. Those gains were made off the back of redistributed money. It’s had a huge positive impact.
“In my time on the executive committee the men’s World Cup was making enough money in one month so that FIFA could spend more than half a million dollars every day on development. If that number gets bigger, it’s not a bad thing. It can develop parts of the game that have not yet grown.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: "We have to shape the World Cup of the 21st Century. Football is more than Europe and South America. Many more countries will have the chance to dream."
Dodd added: “As an Australian, having [previously] watched our men’s team fail to qualify for 32 years in the World Cup, I have to say that a meaningful opportunity to qualify for the World Cup has a very tangible impact on the game domestically.
“There are big countries in the world where the game is not widely played. The realistic prospect of qualifying for a World Cup has a very tangible impact on the growth of the game in those enormous markets. I think that’s very positive.”
There’s more from Moya Dodd on Sportswomen, Sky Sports News HQ, from 11.30am on Tuesday.
