During their recent visit to Qatar to tour the country and discuss the ongoing two-year FIFA World Cup proposal with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and other FIFA representatives, beIN Sports held exclusive interviews with football legends Arsene Wenger, Peter Schmeichel and Pablo Zabaleta.
The interview with the three legends discussed the proposed FIFA two-year World Cup, the football calendar, Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United among other topics.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – now FIFA’s head of global development has put forward proposals to hold the World Cup biennially. Speaking about the proposed two-year World Cup plan, Wenger told beIN: “The International and Club calendar is fixed until 2024. I have been asked to reorganise the calendar after 2024 and on behalf of 166 countries to see if we can organise a World Cup every two years. I have explained my proposal to all stakeholders – coaches, players, ex-players, fans, media – takes a long time to explain but it will eventually be down to FIFA member states to decide if it’s good or not”.
On the negative reaction of his proposal, Wenger said: “People’s reactions at the moment are emotional. I have been educated to have a World Cup every four years, it’s ingrained in my brain, so I can understand the response is negative but on the other hand I do not see any rational explanation why people shouldn’t want this. It’s all about the quality of competition. What the players want is to play big games and meaningful games of better quality. When I was a kid the friendlies were important, today nobody wants to play them. What people want is big competitions and top level games”.
Meanwhile, former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo will excel in his return to Red Devils.
“I have wanted Ronaldo back at Manchester United for a long time. He has an instant understanding of Manchester United, he will carry on great scoring records, great stats. Ronaldo scored 37 goals last season, that won’t go away. He’s unbelievable, a super player and team player. Inspiration to young players. Manchester United have needed this signing for so long, Ronaldo will deliver. I didn’t think Ronaldo was ever going to sign for Manchester City. It’s happy days for Manchester United,” Schmeichel said.
On the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Argentinian star and former Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta said: “Stadiums are amazing – Al Bayt stadium is amazing, the pitch, the stands, the dressing room. Journey time between stadiums is so short. For fans, players, teams Qatar will be perfect, I remember in Brazil 2014 the travel was 2 hours flight between matches, same in Russia 2018. Qatar is a small country, easy to get to all the stadiums, lovely country, places, hotels, I think it will be a wonderful World Cup. Fans can see multiple games in one day, and the transport network is great – so it will be a much better World Cup than in 2010 and 2014. Distance is not an issue, players and fans won’t travel more than 50km.”