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Former Nigeria football scribe, Toro blasts at CAF and Fifa Biennial World Cup plan

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Former General Secretary of the then Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Sani Ahmed Toro has faulted last month’s overwhelming endorsement by CAF General Assembly of Fifa’s plans to hold the World Cup every two years instead of the conventional four years the event has been holding since inception in 1930.

In a chat with Sports Village Square,Toro who was the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian football from 1993 to 1999 remarked that he was in total disagreement with CAF support for Fifa’s plans.

He argued that staging the World Cup every two years will over stress the players.

“Furthermore, clubs will be short-changed for not utilising their strong players during the period of World  Cup.”

Apart from upsetting an age-long tradition, “staging the World Cup every two years will take away the glamour of the competition and host countries may not get the required time and funds to prepare and provide the required FIFA standard facilities.”

The former general secretary further argued that  the required revenue to be given to participating countries will be grossly less while the domestic leagues of the participating countries will be adversely affected by the calendar change.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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