PARIS — A task force set up to examine FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plans for a new Club World Cup and a Global Nations League held its first meeting on Sunday to look at possible formats, dates and slot allocations.
Infantino has proposed a revamped Club World Cup, which would be played every four years with up to 24 teams, while his Nations League would take the form of a mini World Cup with an eight-team final tournament every two years.
He has said that his plans are backed by an investment consortium willing to put in $25 billion over a 12-year cycle in return for 49 percent ownership of the competitions.
However, plans have run into opposition and European governing body UEFA has been among the critics, raising the prospect of a split in the global game.
FIFA said that the task force, which met in Paris, was entrusted with the “technical and sporting elements” of the proposed competitions.
This would include the tournament calendars, start dates and format. For the Club World Cup it would also look at the number of teams and who would qualify.
For the Nations League it would consider the impact on qualifying competitions for existing continental competitions and the World Cup.
FIFA said the task force consisted of members appointed by the six continental confederations, while a “parallel consultation” would take place with clubs, players and leagues.
Its proposals will be presented to the next FIFA Council meeting in Miami in March.
FIFA’s deputy secretary general Zvonimir Boban, who heads the task force, said it would provide the FIFA Council “with a complete breakdown of the sporting elements to be taken into consideration when making a decision on such an important matter for the future of football.” — Reuters

The 65^th annual presentation of the honor goes to the full team, which will be given in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“This is a pretty cool honor and something we cherish as a group and organization,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said in a team release. “I know I speak on behalf of my teammates when I say we’re humbled with this recognition.”
Curry said the Warriors are thrilled to be in “exclusive company” of the other three teams to win the typically individual recognition from SI: the 1980 US Men’s Olympic hockey team, the 1999 US Women’s Olympic soccer team and the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
Sports Illustrated (SI) explained its choice by outlining how the Warriors made themselves collectively bigger than their singular superstar personas, such as Curry, Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson.
“For all the individual brilliance of Steph Curry — a selection whom few would have protested — the Warriors have always been most delightfully viewed through a collective prism. There have been superteams that have forced us to reimagine how the game is played, but none perhaps in a generation, maybe two, are so beautifully choreographed as the Warriors,” Sports Illustrated explained. “At the Dubs’ most golden, their movements and pieces seamlessly blur into each other to the point where it impossible to distinguish the magic of one player from another, even magic so singular as that of Curry or KD.” — Reuters

BERLIN — Any discussion to include esports as a medal event at the Olympic Games is premature because of the way the gaming industry is structured, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Saturday.
Esports, the competitive side of electronic gaming, boasts an estimated 250 million players worldwide in a growing market worth about a billion dollars a year.
The IOC last year recognised esports as a sports activity and it will be a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games.
It made its major multi-sport event debut as a demonstration sport at this year’s Asian Games in Jakarta.
But the Olympic body said uncertainties in the industry remained as far as any potential Olympic inclusion was concerned.
“Some egames are not compatible with the Olympic values and therefore cooperation with them is excluded,” the IOC said following an Olympic Summit of stakeholders in Lausanne.
It also noted that the industry was changing rapidly, while also being fragmented with competition between major commercial operators.
“The industry is commercially driven, while on the other hand the sports movement is values-based,” the IOC said.
“For all these reasons, a discussion about the inclusion of esports/egames as a medal event on the Olympic programme is premature.”
It said, however, that esports simulation games did not have many of those uncertainties.
“Because of this, accelerated cooperation with regard to these kinds of esports is encouraged by the Summit.
“The Summit encourages the International federations to explore the potential benefits and applications of the electronic and virtual versions of their sports.”
Tokyo will host the next Summer Games in 2020 while Beijing will stage the 2022 Winter Olympics. The 2024 and 2028 summer editions will be held in Paris and Los Angeles respectively. — Reuters