Determined to get the English and other leagues to cut down by at least two clubs, Fifa president Sepp Blatter says he plans to get a mandate to force the issue.
”Twenty clubs are too many,” he said on Monday in a reference to England’s Premier League. ”Those who play now also know it.”
Blatter says there should be no more than 45 match days in a season and that includes domestic cup matches and internationals.
Right now some players get through up to 60 games a season, which he believes is too strenuous.
The Fifa president, who met Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday as part of Fifa’s centenary celebrations, has been campaigning for smaller leagues, with no more than 16 clubs, for two years. He is to have more talks with the English Football Association and Premier League to try to get them to cut their domestic matches.
”The problem is there is too much domestic football,” Blatter told reporters.
”It’s good for the leagues — or they think it’s good. It’s good for the managers — they think it’s good. Is it good for the fans, I’m not so sure. But definitely not for the players.”
The Fifa president said that a working group came up with the suggestion that 16 clubs was ideal but no one acted on its recommendation.
”People are waiting for someone in authority to take a decision,” Blatter said. ”But in our statutes and regulations we shall not intervene in domestic football.
”Therefore, we shall ask the Fifa congress to give us the authority to let us intervene.”
Blatter said he will touch on the subject at Fifa’s centenary congress in Paris in May but not ask the national associations to make a decision until the ordinary congress in 2005.
”We will ask the congress to give the power to the Fifa strategic committee to deal with this matter and to come back with the adequate solution for the good of the game,” he said. — Sapa-AP