LONDON, (Reuters) – UEFA plans to spread international matches across the week in a bid to boost the national team game, general secretary Gianni Infantino said yesterday.
“The week of football is a new concept to promote national team football,” Infantino told delegates at the Leaders in Football Conference at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.
“If we leave weekends to other sports in the long term it will be damaging.”
Under the plan, national sides could play on Thursday, Friday or Saturday with the second game of a double-header coming on the following Tuesday, as it does now.
The plan must be agreed by UEFA’s Executive Committee but Europe’s national associations are in favour of matches being spread so that fans can watch games for several nights in a row in an international week.
UEFA also wants to harmonise kick-off times for international fixtures such as the Champions League while the August friendly date was described as “a problem” by Infantino with club sides annoyed that it broke up the start of the season.
Infantino denied that the whole international calendar could be revolutionised amid rumblings from FIFA of a major change.
“There is no serious prospect of UEFA supporting a February to November season from 2015,” he said.