It was such a joy to watch the Olympic games! I seem to have forgotten how great the Olympic spirit is for all the disciplines presented, that is: for all the disciplines except men’s football (the one where you play the ball with your foot, a.k.a. soccer).
I know why FIFA doesn’t want a competitor for a worldwide tournament with all the best athletes, but isn’t this just a monetary issue that could be solved? Wouldn’t the World Cup always be higher regarded, since it’s a single-discipline-event stretching a whole month?
What would substract from it if we have a smaller tournament in the year of the Summer Olympics, and move the continental cups like the Euros to the odd years 2029, 2033…? I would love to see world’s best footballers to be amongst other athletes and enjoy the spirit that an Olympic host city (like Paris!) can offer.
If you ask the athletes, they would surely love to. If you ask the fans, they would enjoy it as well, the only possible criticism being a little bit of a trophy inflation within that 4 years time span. But that’s still so much better than all of FIFA’s own inflationary ideas like Nation League, Club World Cup etc…!
Thanks for your opinion, sounds reasonable. But I don’t think football is the sport that requires the most time between matches. It’s rather historically that you don’t have more than 1 match during the workdays, and that’s mostly an international one since the weekend is reserved for domestic league. When you look at NBA basketball with up to 4 games per week, I wouldn’t argue that it’s half the power needed compared to football. It’s rather that athletes got used to that rhythm and get compensated by at least 4 full months of recovery (current Olympics aside)!