Fifa president Gianni Infantino holds news conference before World Cup final
FIFA President Gianni Infantino holds a news conference following a FIFA Council meeting two days before the World Cup final in Qatar. Subscribe to Guardian Football ► http://is.gd/GuardianFootball The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://bit.ly/3uhA7zg Sign up to the Guardian's free new daily newsletter, First Edition ► http://theguardian.com/first-edition Website ► https://www.theguardian.com Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/theguardian Twitter ► https://twitter.com/guardian Instagram ► https://instagram.com/guardian The Guardian on YouTube: The Guardian ► https://bit.ly/guardiannewssubs Guardian News ► https://bit.ly/guardiannewssubs Guardian Australia ► https://bit.ly/guardianaussubs Guardian Sport ► https://bit.ly/gdnsportsubs Guardian Live ► https://bit.ly/guardianlivesubs Infantino WorldCup FIFA Football Qatar Live
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foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign thank you foreign foreign thank you okay thank you thank you foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign thank you thank you foreign foreign foreign [Applause] [Applause] foreign and Argentina can wrestle it from them now good afternoon everyone firstly thank you very much for your patience welcome to the speaker press conference on the eve of the World Cup final here in Doha the FIFA president here to answer some of your questions interpretation provided via the usual app on your phone all being well I will hand over now to Gianni for a review and some thoughts on the World Cup and of the FIFA council meeting that has just finished a shot time ago Johnny thank you thank you very much Brian hello everyone welcome to this press conference sorry for being a little bit uh late uh due to of course council meeting and and obviously always uh you know when it starts you never know when when it ends but it's uh it's great that that you are all here and let me say how how happy I am of course to be here with you today so let me just give you a quick update on what was discussed and decided at the council meeting well the first item I want to highlight and and stress of course is um the praise for the unanimous Praise of the FIFA Council for this world cup for The Unique cohesive power that this world cup has shown the thanks to everyone who has evolved to of course Qatar uh all the volunteers Workforce all of you everyone who has contributed to make this world cup the best World Cup ever let me just give you just a couple of figures regarding this world cup you receive of course all of that but um I think it's uh it's important we had already a cumulative audience of 3.27 million Spectators it was 3.03 for uh 2018 for all the matches there are still two matches to go as you know of course the average is 52 760. it was a bit more than 47 000 in 2018 highest attendance loose sale 88 966 for Argentina um Mexico 1.7 million people attended the FIFA Fan Festival uh almost 80 000 per day and we played 62 matches so far we found incidents um basically in a very very joyful atmosphere and I think this is what we need to um to bear in mind the goal scorers are similar to the ones in in Russia 163 so far important as well no team has won all the games and for the first time ever teams from all the continents moved to The Knockout phase showing that there is something happening when we speak about football becoming truly Global for the first time an African team Morocco an Arab team as well reaching a semi-final stage of the World Cup so again congratulations we're also for the first time a woman who refereed a match uh Stephanie frappar from France it was Germany Costa Rica and she did very well we had 2.3 million higher carved applications 1.9 1.9 million approved and the top five visiting countries were Saudi Arabia India United States of America United Kingdom and Mexico so International atmosphere uh joyful atmosphere football uniting the world people coming together and wanting to enjoy a little bit their time maybe forgetting also some of their issues and having a pleasure we will issue as well after the final of course the viewing figures and uh and the audience figures but it has been as you know of course an incredible success we are approaching the 5 billion Mark in terms of uh viewing uh figures and then again uh say a big thank you to all those who who made this happen we had almost 180 000 accreditations that were issued also to to all of you we had more than 400 000 volunteers who wanted who applied to become volunteers 20 000 were selected from 150 different countries so it was very very successful but we touched wood do we have wood somewhere yep that's what so we touch wood um too much is to go so I say to everyone who is uh praising or receiving Praises while Focus until the end and then we will of course hopefully confirm these uh feelings that we have now which are modern feelings obviously when it comes to the council meeting coming back to that we could confirm of course the revenues of this four-year cycle which was at 7.5 billion so 1 billion more than what was budgeted four years ago you know we have these four-year Cycles one billion more revenues in Period which was hit by a pandemic by covet I think this is quite remarkable so then congratulations to all those who were making this happen and looking forward ahead the FIFA Council approved the budget for the next four-year cycle which will foresee a revenue of 11 billion so the last four year cycle the budget of 6.4 with 6.44 I think we made 7.5 the next cycle has a budget of 11 billion um revenues and almost 10 billion will go directly back of course to football the council also proved the talent development scheme under the leadership of arson Wenger to detect and develop talents all over the world 200 million US Dollars will be invested for this particular project and we discussed as well uh and it was endorsed by the council unanimously some strategic principles with regard to the international match calendars for women and men and competitions for women and men when it comes to the men to start with um as you certainly remember we had agreed a few years ago to have a new men's World Cup of 24 teams who should have taken place in 2021 this event was postponed because of covet the new men's club World Cup will therefore take place in 2025 and will feature 32 teams the best teams in the world of course the details for the allocation and so on still need to be discussed agreed and decided about the 32 team tournament will go ahead making it really like a World Cup like this world cup of 32. teams when it comes to the international match calendar the principle of having the two windows of September and October merged to have four matches instead of two in September and two in October four matches end of September beginning of October and for the rest remaining the same and again what we have seen in this particular World Cup the importance of having matches between national teams of different countries of different continents sorry uh happening more regularly more often and the idea there and the principle that was agreed again details to be elaborated is to use the March Windows the 10 days in March in the even years so the World Cup years and the Copa America or Euro years um to organize a friendly tournaments between four teams of four different confederations so that they can gain everyone can gain this experience in playing with each other under of course the umbrella of FIFA so FIFA World Series type of events to allow more matches between teams of different confederations for women's football very similar the first decision was to extend the calendar um until 25 to give us more time to study the new calendar but also to create a new Women's Club World Cup details again to be elaborated and also a new FIFA futsals Women's World Cup every four years as well but with details to be elaborated also again for your information the decision on the hosts of The Men's World Cup 2030 and of the Women's World Cup 2027 will take place in 2024 the Women's World Cup 2031 will be decided in 2025 so we have the same six-year preparation Spanish for the men's World Cup so we we are running after in order to really align men and women competition and World Cups um what we would like as well is uh to see if the women's Olympic tournament can have 16 teams as the men's Olympic tournaments because today demands are 16 and the women's has 12 we feel that women should have 16 teams as well so we will of course engage in discussion and see what is possible we also decided again in the purpose of making football truly global to increase the number of participating teams in the used tournaments and making the under 17 tournaments for boys and for girls annual instead of having them every two years this will start in 2020 for very important element I don't want to forget that is when it comes to the international match calendar we have to take really into consideration the health and the well-being of players hence as well the four games window rather than two two games window in September of October to have one InterContinental travel less for the players but more generally we need to ensure that there is a rest period for players a holiday period that there are uh 72 hours at least between two games ideally that there is one rest day every week of course we need to be pragmatic on these topics but as principals and then we need to see how they can be enforced because it's important that the players are at their best so we'll now consult on all of these topics and then elaborate all the details about the principles were approved and endorsed by the council we took then some other decisions Morocco will host the club World Cup the 22 Club World Cup which will take place from the first to the 11th of February 23. when it comes to beach soccer World Cup in 23 will be hosted by the UAE and in 25 by the Seychelles with an approved uh whole series of regulations we approved for example the new FIFA football agents regulations which is a very important step after two years of consultation and discussion in order to bring more transparency professionality in the transfer system the transfer the players agents regulations or the agents football agents regulations are a crucial part uh so this has been approved including a mandatory licensing system the prohibition of multiple representation in order to avoid conflicts of interest and of course the introduction as well of a cup on the commission we approved also some amendments to the courts of ethics and the disciplinary code of FIFA and finally there was also a clarification and that concerns me but since I'm here I will mention the clarification with regard to my term of office So currently I am in my first term of office and on the 16th of March there is the election for the FIFA president in Kigali in Rwanda my second term of office is FIFA president will start you know there is a limit of three turns of office so these were the main decisions taken by the FIFA council did I forget anything nope Brian no okay then I think we can open the floor for questions okay thanks Johnny you'll get that all on an email very very shortly I know it's quite a lot of information okay time for questions now so if you could please raise your hand state your name and organization I will try my best to get around as many of you as possible absolutely mindful of the opening press conferences too so I'm trying to be fair to everyone here um let's go please second row the gentleman in the blue with the White Cap cream baseball cap thank you good morning Mr President my name is here I was looking for a blue baseball cup a white baseball blue a blue uh okay sorry it had today uh Mr President so it has been a massive success massive all front success and and a quality of football for me the World Cup has been a really incredible success yes on all fronts uh the main one um of course on on defense the behavior the joyful atmosphere the bringing people together fans coming from abroad meeting the Arab world uh is is very very important for the future of all of us I believe but also when it comes to the to the matches I mean we have seen some uh some incredibly competitive gains uh we have seen some some surprises maybe uh some great great goals uh defect of playing in November December as opposed to the end of the season for many uh players at the end of exhausting season has certainly an impact I mean for many of these players it is the first title of the Season that is played in this world cup and we've seen it on on the quality of of the games let me add as well in this respect that I mentioned about the the the refereeing uh and the effective uh time played uh as well because you've seen some additional time um maybe unusually long additional time but this has been a concern that was raised by the ifap earlier this year and uh you know we play 90 minutes but there are a lot of interruptions so at the end of the day there was on average 10 minutes a little bit of more than 10 minutes 10 minutes and 11 seconds played on average as additional time every match bringing the duration of a match to 59 minutes and 51 seconds on average so around 60 minutes of effective play which I think is uh definitely something very positive because everyone enjoys people enjoy we have great games we had some incredible actions also at the end of the games and I think this was very important this was also let me add a very fair uh World Cup on the pitch no simulations uh uh not so many yellow and red cards actually a little bit less than than in Russia so far but uh this shows as well the compliment there goes to the players and and the coaches who managed to maintain their carb okay into the referees as well obviously thank you for your question I was just going to go up near the back um just on the point of referees we will be publishing some of the data after after this just so that you've got them all two reports I should have gone to the front first I will go over to Gabriel far right please uh thank you Brian uh Gabriel marcotti uh from ESPN uh Mr President uh Presidente um uh I just want to take you back to the projected Revenue which you said was going to be or the budget so it's going to be about 11 billion so that's a 50 uplift repair compared to the the current cycle yeah can you just explain a little bit what the main factors are going to be obviously the 48 team World Cup uh is going to be a big part of it is that alone what else do you see driving here are you that bullish about the potential commercial revenues and broadcast revenues can you just explain how you get to that number well we are let me say we are bullish about um [Music] the power of football so to say about what we believe the impact of football or or soccer as it's called where we are going to to play the next World Cup or at least in a part of the two of the countries um we are more than bullish I think we are you know convinced that uh the impact of the game will be massive it has been massive here uh it will be incredible in North America three huge countries Mexico United States Canada organizing the event 48 teams 50 more so from 32 to 48. more games revenues will go up in terms of broadcasting in terms of sponsorship and in terms of ticketing and Hospitality let's not forget that we will play in a huge stadiums in in North America stadiums which are normally used for American football so 80 90 000 70 000 is almost the smallest capacity but then with a lot of attractions for fans so we are expecting 5 million five and a half million fans traveling specifically for these events and and we are convinced that football will be uh booming in North America because we'll start working immediately as of the 19th of December for that World Cup uh when it comes to demands for the women's Australia New Zealand but in 23 but we are really convinced of uh of the growth there is one Element since since you mentioned World Cup which allows me to make a little a little remark as you might remember um we have been approving a 48 team format with 16 groups of three of which top two would move to The Knockout phase of 32 and then 16 8 4 and 2. I have to say that after this world cup and the success of the groups of four and looking at as well some other competitions like the Euro for example where you have 24 teams and the top two plus the best third ones go to the next group stage I mean here the groups of four have been absolutely incredible in the sense that until the last minute of the last match uh he would not know who goes ahead I think we have to revisit or at least rediscuss the format whether we go for six in groups of three or 12 groups of four this is something that will certainly be on the agenda in the next meetings but as you say a 50 increase of revenues this certainly something um well to be proud of when it when it will have happened but uh already to be proud of putting out in the books and getting it approved as a budget thank you go over to the far left here John hello Jenny Jean decode from AFP news agency um you just said that the next World Cup will have a 16 group of three how will you prevent uh illegal agreement between the two teams that played the last game in the group phase and avoid to have a biscotto and and games like we we knew in the past and my second question is you're very bullish on on the revenue of the of the next cycle um is there any plan from FIFA to share this wealth um which we used you spoke but maybe have a compensation fund for migrant workers here uh what's the what's the status of this compensation found and will you share some of this wealth um you should know that FIFA shares everything from its wealth uh all the revenues of FIFA are being redistributed and reinvested mainly in the game and also in some other activities it's sufficient to look into our accounts and you will see that immediately when it comes to the Legacy fund I've been speaking about that as well and we've published some information about that before this world cup and more we follow after this world cup when it comes to the 16 groups of three that's exactly what I was just mentioning it's something that we need to consider that we need to discuss whether it's fixing groups of three or whether 12 groups of four are better um I just have a question actually to Brian is is bullish negative or does it have a negative there's negative connotation I don't want to to have it I mean we want to be polish we are optimistic we are convinced of the power of football we are convinced that football will become the number one sport in North America or maybe the number two to start with and then with time but we are convinced of of the power of our game and uh and you know the more revenues we can generate the more we can reinvest in the game mainly in all those countries who have zero zero revenues who depend on us before I became FIFA president around 300 million a year were invested in a football development programs as of first of January next year it will be 2.25 billion who will be invested in football development around the world so seven times more I think well this is uh all done in full transparency and I think very positive bullish aggressively confident and self-assertive confident and self-asserted so we are bullish yes sums are up I think um okay uh second row third row Olaf thank you uh all I've learned from Swedish tv4 uh you talk a lot about that football unites but in this world cup especially in the beginning we saw that it didn't have that uniting factor and we had federations like the Danish Federation German Federation critical of you some of them won't vote for you now in Kigali can you explain all the things about when you refuse teams playing with the one love armband and why you did that and why some political statements are allowed and some not um well thanks thanks for the question um you know FIFA is an organization of 211. countries around the world I'm I'm very grateful and proud to the over 200 countries who have expressed their support in writing and orally to me and to the others I'm very grateful as well I'm proud that we are always having discussions with everyone on every topic and there are many different concerns in many different countries there are different cultures there are different ways of seeing um and and and and and and of seeing things and as FIFA we have to take care of everyone we are a global organization we do not have to discriminate anyone based on whatever legislation whatever regime whatever values and feelings they have there is one Element and it's that they have to come together and you know when it comes to uh regulations well our prohibitions or not prohibitions uh we didn't it's