EUROPEAN football chiefs have opened a public war with Fifa over plans for an expanded Club World Cup.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino wants the 24-team tournament, with 12 sides from Europe taking part, to be held every four years from 2021.
Infantino is offering clubs a potential £100million share of the £2billion prize fund to get them to take part.
He is also offering places by invitation rather than qualification to the first tournament, giving spots to all clubs that have won the European Cup or Champions League three times.
That would see England represented by Manchester United and Liverpool, with spaces for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Inter and — despite only lifting the biggest club prize twice — Juventus.
But, at a meeting of Uefa’s Professional Football Strategy Council in Lyon, European bosses hit back.
The PFSC, made up of representatives from the clubs, European leagues, players’ union FifPro and Uefa, issued a damning statement. It read: “The PFSC unanimously expressed serious reservations about the process surrounding the Fifa Club World Cup and Global Nations League proposals.
“We have particular reservations over the hasty timing and lack of concrete information.”
Fifa’s plan is part of a 12-year project for new tournaments to replace the Confederations Cup, which could net the world governing body £19bn and is bankrolled by Japanese investment fund SoftBank.
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The statement added: “We underlined the need for a clearly-defined procedure, which respects existing structures and decision-making bodies and which involves all key stakeholders.
“In particular, such proposals must be considered as part of a global reflection on the overall international match calendar and cannot be decided upon in isolation.”
It was a clear warning that Infantino cannot ride roughshod over European reservations at his plan without having a major fight.
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