The ‘mistake’ that is Fifa’s Club World Cup looms large. But will it even happen?
This is the one thing the former Fifa president Sepp Blatter admits he should not have done: create the Fifa Club World Cup. “It was a mistake,” he told the Swiss daily 24 heures last month. “Fifa must concern itself with national federations, not clubs.” Yet this “mistake” is a part of Blatter’s legacy that his successor, Gianni Infantino, had no hesitation to embrace.
As early as 2016 Infantino, nine months after his election, had proposed an expanded version to replace the old format, which, since 2005, had involved seven teams – the six continental champions plus a representative of the host country – every December, over a period of 10 days. “We need to make the Club World Cup more interesting for teams, and also for fans around the world,” he said. “That will attract more sponsors and television companies from around the world.”The glacial reception his proposal received from Uefa, which threatened a walk-out, caused Infantino to revise his blueprint. One year later he suggested that 24 teams should participate in the competition, which would take the place of the Confederations Cup from 2021. Then Covid struck, the plan was abandoned, and next year a four-week, 32-team tournament will take place from 15 June to 13 July, “an unforgettable celebration of our game that will revolutionise club football”, in Infantino’s words.
But will it even happen? Seven months from the opening game in Miami, the sponsors and television companies that Infantino believed would queue up remain unconvinced. Only one commercial partner has been found, which can hardly be considered “new”: the Chinese electronics group Hisense, a Fifa sponsor since the 2018 World Cup. Others are biding their time, and won’t commit until they know which broadcasters will cover the event, and how; but those broadcasters haven’t committed either. Fifa’s ambition was to make its revamped competition its second most lucrative event after the men’s World Cup, targeting broadcast revenue of $4bn (£3.2bn). This would have made it the costliest event in the history of sport, each game priced at $63.5m to a would-be global broadcaster.
Only one offer is thought to have been made, by Apple TV, but for only a quarter of the hoped-for $4bn. In September it was reported that Infantino had convened an emergency briefing with top executives of global broadcasters to break the deadlock. When contacted by the Guardian, Fifa would not comment on these figures, citing confidentiality in matters of commercial and media rights, but said there would be “more announcements over the coming weeks”. Fifa confirmed the briefing had taken place, but said it had no character of “emergency” and was “a joint outreach to the industry to present a new product, organised and delivered together with ECA [European Club Association]”.
Fifa tried to sprinkle extra stardust on its product by deciding that the host country, the US, would be represented by David Beckham’s and Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, by virtue of their winning the Supporters’ Shield, which is given to the MLS team with the best record at the end of the regular season. Inter Miami’s qualification for the Club World Cup, announced by Infantino, did not fit the criteria Fifa applied in previous editions of the tournament, when the host country’s representative would be the national champions – and Inter Miami, knocked out of the MLS Cup in the first round of the playoffs, are out of the race for the title which will be decided on 7 December.
Fifa told the Guardian it had “held discussions with MLS throughout 2024 to ascertain options to determine one host member association club berth … The winner of the MLS Supporters’ Shield was one option that was proposed and discussed. As per the FCWC regulations, this is ultimately a Fifa decision.” It also said that “the vested interests of others afraid of [the Club World Cup’s] success means that they are trying to actively undermine it by dropping to the disappointing level of challenging whether the winner of a domestic league structure should rightfully qualify or not”. The reply received from MLS was shorter. “Fifa managed the process and decided to award the host spot to Inter Miami. Any further inquiries, please reach out to Fifa.”
Broadcasters and sponsors are not the only stakeholders to have shown a marked lack of enthusiasm. European players’ unions, supported by the global body Fifpro, filed a lawsuit against Fifa at Brussels’ court of commerce in June, “challenging the legality of Fifa’s decisions to unilaterally set the international match calendar and, in particular, the decision to create and schedule the Fifa Club World Cup 2025”.
Everywhere, there are more questions than answers. The uncertainty is such that Real Madrid did not budget for any income from the 2025 Club World Cup in their annual financial projections because “there [was] no precise information on the subject”. Their manager Carlo Ancelotti – later corrected by his club – went as far as saying that Fifa could “forget about” his team taking part, that “like us, other clubs will turn down the invite”, and it was not all about the money.In summer tournaments such as a European Championship or World Cup, top clubs are more or less equally affected. Not this time. Clubs such as Barcelona, Liverpool and Milan who have not qualified will be able to offer their squad the customary four-week holiday before pre-season training. Real, Manchester City and Inter will be among those at a clear disadvantage when the season begins. Moreover, should they go deep in the competition and release their players in July, they won’t be able to call on them for the money-spinning tours which double up as pre-season preparation. Who’d pay to organise a Real Madrid exhibition game in which Vinícius Júnior, Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham took no part?
Non-European clubs will also be affected. Those competing in the Argentinian, Brazilian, Korean and Japanese leagues will have to drop out of domestic competitions while these are in full flow, because their seasons run from the northern hemisphere’s spring to autumn.
The draw will take place on 5 December in Miami. The “innovative” trophy, on which Infantino’s name has been laser-engraved, twice, was unveiled a few days ago. We are so far down the road that turning back is surely impossible. Yet the doubts surrounding the tournament are such that, in private, executives from clubs due to take part are wondering, only half-jokingly, whether it will go ahead. After all, it’s happened before. Wasn’t the 2001 edition of the Club World Cup “postponed” after the collapse of Fifa’s then-marketing partner ISL, which had caused “major difficulties in selling the 2001 edition to sponsors and broadcasters”?
