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Fifa, world soccer’s governing body, has scrapped plans to vote on a revamp of its Club World Cup competition at a council meeting in Rwanda.
The Fifa Council was set to decide on proposals to overhaul the competition, with an expanded tournament to replace the quadrennial Confederations Cup national team tournament, which is traditionally held in the summer preceding World Cups.
However, it was decided that Fifa will instead prolong the consultation process into the possible revamp, with many members from European governing body Uefa opposing the changes. Some Uefa representatives had threatened to stage a walkout over the proposals.
Instead, a taskforce has been set up to explore the possibility of the competition’s overhaul, and is set to report on its findings at the next Fifa Council meeting in March 2019.
The meeting also saw other key decisions take place, including an increase in funds towards teams competing in the Women’s World Cup, which takes place in June 2019.
Prize money for the upcoming tournament has been doubled to US$30 million, while the overall contribution of US$50 million is over three times the sum of the previous tournament in 2015.
Fifa also announced that Copa America tournaments will be held in the same years as European Championships from 2020.
Meanwhile, the ongoing issue around possible Spanish league games taking place in the United States was discussed further, with the governing body reiterating its principle of hosting league matches in the same territory as the member association.
