A log placed sideways in the path of a steamroller. In fact, this is “The Finalissima”, the challenge between the South American champions of Argentina and the Italian champions of Europe that will illuminate Wembley and will mark the end of Giorgio Chiellini’s blue career. Yes, because if the spreader is Gianni Infantino’s Fifa, which proceeds straight towards his globalized football project, World Cup for national teams every two (or more likely three) years, Club World Cup in an increasingly extended and inclusive version, “The Finalissima “Is precisely a trunk that the football governments of Europe and South America, the” noble “fathers of football, try to throw sideways to curb this long march, trying to reinvigorate a faded tradition while relaunching an alliance that is also ( and above all) commercial and strategic.
Memorandum of Understanding
The (re) birth of the challenge must be dated 15 December 2021, when Uefa and COMNEBOL announced a memorandum of understanding valid until 30 June 2028 for at least three other editions of The Finalissima, and the opening of a common office in London. And to clear up any doubts about the desire to re-tie the red threads that have always linked the two hearts of global football, both the UEFA president Ceferin and that of COMNEBOL, Alejandro Dominguez, have highlighted precisely the lines of continuity between the new challenge and the attempts made in the past to elect the national queen of football only between the two footballing “noble” shores of the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, Infantino …
Agreement greeted at least with icy detachment from Fifa. Meanwhile, after admitting his defeat on the project to play the World Cup every two years, Gianni Infantino has already started a new plan to propose an alternative. The FIFA president would like to organize the World Cup every three years as part of a 36-month cycle of tournaments. With Infantino’s new project, the first year would see the Club World Cup expanded to 24 teams, the middle summer would lead to the dispute of the continental championships, such as the European and the America’s Cup, while the third year would be precisely that of the Cup. of the world. Infantino mentioned this possibility already on the occasion of the congress of the 211 member associations, held in Doha on the occasion of the draw for the Qatar2022 World Cup.
Artemio Franchi cup
In the meantime, the time has come for the “new / old” Cup. In fact, someone (starting from Wikipedia, which will mean something …) has already renamed it “Coppa Artemio Franchi”, as if it were the sequel (and so Uefa itself has interpreted it in its official communications related to the event , and president Ceferin since the signing of the memorandum of understanding) of the trophy named after the great Florentine football manager, president of UEFA since 1973 and until August 1983, when he died in a car accident near Siena. To honor his memory, CONMEBOL and Uefa itself gave birth to a challenge between the national champions of South America and Europe, which in fact mirrored the Intercontinental Cup for clubs, held from 1960 to 2004.
Only two editions
In reality (and, in retrospect, with some regret, it comes to say, also given the names of the protagonists on the field) of the “Coppa Artemio Franchi” only two editions were played: on 21 August 1985, at the Parco dei Principi in Paris, the France led by Michel Platini, European home champion in 1984, beat Enzo Francescoli’s Uruguay 2-0, winner of the 1983 America’s Cup, thanks to goals from Rocheteau in the 4 ‘and Toure in the 56’; for the encore of what was originally imagined with the certainly not fluent name of “European-South American Nations Cup”, however, it will be necessary to wait until February 24, 1993 (given that in the edition scheduled for 1989 the Netherlands of Gullit and Van Basten and Uruguay himself will not agree on the date to play the match), when Diego Armando Maradona’s Argentina will only pass on penalties (after 1 to 1 in regulation and extra time, signed by Craviotto’s own goal and like Caniggia in the first half hour of the race), in Mar de La Plata, the Denmark of Peter Schmeichel, who just in June ’92 had amazed Europe and the world, winning the continental title in Sweden (overcoming Germany world champion in the final) after being recalled at the last moment (many of the Danish players were at the seaside on vacation …) to replace Yugoslavia in the final phase, excluded as a result of the civil war that was bleeding the the country. Then the stop, in favor of that Confederations Cup wanted by Fifa and in turn jubilated in 2019 in favor of a more extended version of the Club World Cup, heir to the “old” Intercontinental Cup. In short, a carousel of calendars, formulas, trophies and tournaments from which global football seems to have no intention of getting off….