FIFA president Gianni Infantino discussed current Italy situation in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport: "It will be my first World Cup and Italy won't be in it, that saddens me. I would have liked to hand the Cup over to Buffon. But there were signals of this decline, qualification would have only covered up for the problems".
Infantino voiced also his opinion about the transfer market and VAR: "I don't like the current state of football transfer market. Transfers' fees have gone up to $6.4 billion, the fees for agents and intermediaries to $500 million, whil expenditures for the developement are at $60 million. We need new rules on transfers and trasparency. I want to go back to the values that made football great and also to put a limit to loaned players and to squads, that should be formed by a maximum of 25 players. The Financial Fair Play? 80% of clubs' costs is for salaries. Salary cap is a difficult option, but we could think about introducing something similar. VAR? Two minutes to make a decision are a long time but it's better than a wrong call by a referee". Finally, FIFA president introduced the new Club Word Cup's format: "It will take place every four years from June 2021. 24 teams will take part in it, half of which will be from Europe, for a total of 31 games".
