The football merry-go-round will be spinning faster than ever in 2024. Not only at club level but also in the national team sphere. Almost as if FIFA and UEFA, Asia’s AFC and Africa’s CAF fear that, at any moment, the music will stop as broadcasters tire of the cacophony of all those expensively-concocted tournaments, championships and finals.
Such a perception was exacerbated by the year-long Covid-enforced postponements. The UEFA European Championship – like the Olympic Games – will be with us in a mere matter of months while fans are still feasting on memories of two-and-a-half years ago.
THE CLUB WORLD
The one sector unaffected by this clutter is the club world. This is because the annual packaging of leagues and cups remains comparatively unaffected. Well, comparatively. UEFA, in the autumn, will unveil the new Champions League formula with two extra group matches just as FIFA is stepping up its own invasion of the international club game.
CONTINENTAL COMPETITIONS
Three events stand out in the 2024 calendar: the UEFA Euro finals in Germany, the latest United States staging of the Copa America and the Champions League knockout rounds. Within weeks Africa and Asia will play catch-up on the calendar by staging their 2023 championships in Ivory Coast and Qatar respectively.
Everyone is running a race against time.
Meanwhile, as envious FIFA clearly understands more than ever before, it is the club schedule which keeps fans’ attention magnetised day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out.
TWO QUESTIONS
Here, two over-arching questions dictate the agenda: one concerns the ability of the English Premier League to maintain its privileged status in a class of its own, the second – connected – is whether anyone out there can beat Manchester City in Premier or UEFA Champions Leagues.
In the ‘old days’ the European club competitions witnessed a regular power rebalance between Spain and Italy and England and then round and around again. But the advent of sportswashing-inspired state intervention has changed the competitive dynamic.
RISING TIDES
Abu Dhabi deploys Manchester City as foundation of a worldwide club empire while Qatar’s power base emanates from Paris Saint-Germain whose influencer-president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, leads the European Club Association and sits on the UEFA executive committee. Now the European game awaits the rising tides coming in from Saudi Arabia. Newcastle United are surely only one foot in the door.
Can any of the ‘independents’ resist on behalf of the old guard? Bayern Munich, maybe? Or Real Madrid or Barcelona while the latter pair continue to toy with their Super League dream?
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Then again, maybe football, with its infinite eruption of upsets and giantkillings, can come to its own rescue. Try predicting the big winners this year and then see how many you had right this time next year. Probably not many. Hence the merry-go-round will keep on spinning and we will remain as mesmerised as ever.
Credit: AIPS Media
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