FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Wednesday claimed that adjusting  FIFA’s football calendar to allow biennial World Cup will stop illegal immigration of Africans to Europe.

Making case for the adjustments of the FIFA calendar at the Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Mr Infantino claimed that the introduction of biennial World Cup will make Africans less likely to illegally migrate to Europe through the Mediterranean sea.

“We need to give hope to Africans so they don’t need to cross the Mediterranean in order to find, maybe, a better life but more probably death in the sea,” Mr Infantino said.

He explained that the organisation’s calendar reforms, which include plans for biennial World Cup, were needed to give the football world outside Europe hope.

FIFA had in 2021  proposed the introduction of a biennial World Cup tournament, suggesting that the initiative would create more profits that could be distributed to federations in Africa, Asia and South America, relying on FIFA funds than the wealthy European leagues.

However, opposition to the proposal has continued to mount.

Opposing the initiative, UEFA claimed that  European member associations could stand to lose over $2-$3 billion per four-year cycle due to lost sponsorships and media revenue.

Also, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter disagreed with the Biennial World Cup plan, saying the proposal would be damaging to the game at the club level.