Unfortunately, the news of the death of Sinisa Mihajlovic is not unexpected, but equally painful and bitter, on the tables of the Media Center in Doha. World of football in mourning precisely on the days when the party is about to reach its climax, and then the first tribute comes from those who Sinisa faced him as a rival on the field. In fact, they all play wearing the “Sinisa 11” shirt, the legends of football history involved in a tournament-exhibition here in Qatar: Del Piero, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Seedorf, each of them crossed studs with Sinisa, as partner and /o rival, and then those shirts written at the moment, with a simple marker pen, driven by painful melancholy, give the idea of sincere and participatory thought to remember him, Mihajlovic, in the version in which he gave his best, as a victorious player between Red Star, Rome, Lazio, Sampdoria, Inter, with that left foot of rare power and precision (not surprisingly explicitly mentioned in the official note of the Serbian football federation) which on free-kicks and penalties was little less than a sentence in the Cassation.
Fifa’s number one, Gianni Infantino, also thought of those free kicks, addressing his condolences to the family on behalf of world football: «On the pitch, his free kicks embodied a passion and dedication to the beauty of the game who have left an indelible mark on the world of sport and his death is a great loss for all of us,” he said. And definitive, like the trajectories of that poisonous and magical left, also appear the decisions announced a few hours earlier by Infantino himself.
The Fifa number one chooses the final balance sheet press conference – on the eve of the last two challenges – to launch his new project, intended to divide what (Uefa and Fifa) that (only) the aversion to the Super League had (momentarily reunited ): a new tournament under the aegis of FIFA, a World Cup for clubs, with 32 teams (therefore like the current World Cup for National Teams) to be played starting from June 2025 every four years, with venue still to be defined; after all, that same tournament – with 24 participants – should have already been held in China in 2021, and it was only the pandemic that blocked its progress.
A project that is already causing discussion, given the extremely busy schedules: “We will be in dialogue with all the protagonists on the pitch, with the leagues and federations, while respecting the health of the players,” the FIFA number one said, but after the World Cup for Nationals every two years (a proposal on which he was forced to make a hasty about-face) this other forward flight risks creating even deeper cracks (so much so that via social media more than one expert already hypothesizes a possible boycott by European clubs).
Speaking of tournaments and formulas, Infantino (who may also be Swiss, but shows up at the press conference in the theatre/auditorium contained in the Media Center one hour – yes, exactly – late: cautioned) clarifies the reflections underway around the World Cup “tripartite” of 2026, shared precisely by Mexico, the United States and Canada. The participants will certainly be 48, but still to be seen how they are divided, whether in 12 groups of 4, or in 16 of 3.