Rummenigge open to new Club World Cup
Bayern Munich's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has welcomed plans to revamp the Club World Cup, two days after the idea was rejected by Uefa and the European Club Association (ECA), to which Bayern belongs.
"The current Club World Cup in December is a nonsense," Rummenigge who is both Bayern chairman and honorary chair of the ECA, told Sunday's edition of Frankfurt-based newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"I understand why Fifa should want to reform this competition."
Last Friday, however, the ECA threatened to boycott plans to expand the annual Club World Cup to 24 teams in 2021, a project led by Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Rummenigge criticised the Swiss over his handling of the situation.
"I think that Gianni Infantino was wrong not to agree beforehand with the ECA and with (its president) Andrea Agnelli," answered Rummenigge.
"This led to this public defensive position, I regret it and I do not appreciate that between Fifa, Uefa and ECA, there is not a basis for positive discussion."
The ECA, founded in 2008 by 16 teams, represents Europe's top sides and currently has 109 members, including Rummenigge's Bayern.
Rummenigge believes the ECA must have a say in the distribution of revenues for this new event. Clubs and leagues should get a significant share, and not only national associations.
"At the end of the day, it's a competition played by clubs," he said.
He was also unhappy that Fifa could replace the Confederations Cup, a quadrennial tournament held a year before the World Cup, in the already over-crowded football calendar.
"Every time, we are asked to make our players available, without us getting any benefit as a club," he said. - AFP
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