FIFA, is planning a feasibility study to see if the World Cups may be held every two years instead of every four years.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s (SAFF) request was approved at Fifa’s annual congress.

The inquiry will also look into the tournaments’ qualification competitions.

“We believe the future of football is at a critical juncture,” said SAFF president Yasser Al-Misehal.

“The many issues that football has faced have now been further exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.

“It is important to review how the global game is structured, which should include whether the current four-year cycle remains the optimum basis for how football is managed both from a competition and a commercial perspective as well as overall football development.

“Having fewer yet more meaningful competitive national team matches could potentially address concerns regarding player welfare whilst at the same time enhancing the value and merit of such competitions.”

Fifa president Gianni Infantino called it an “eloquent and detailed proposal”, with 166 national federations voting in favour with 22 votes against it.

Since its inception in 1930, the men’s World Cup has been held every four years, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to World War II.

Since 1991, the women’s tournament has been held every four years.

The next men’s tournament will be held in Qatar at the end of 2022, with Australia/New Zealand 2023 to follow eight months later for the women’s game, but any potential future reshuffle would likely force widespread changes in both the club game and continental tournaments such as the European Championship and Copa America

Now, by doing some simple mathematics, we can deduce that the plan to make the World Cup an event held every two years means there will be double the number of tournaments played in the same time span.

So, the 6 billion US dollars reportedly made by FIFA for the Russian tournament, could in theory then be doubled if the tournament was played every two seasons, but there is no way of proving if FIFA realised this before embarking on the aforementioned study.

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