Crying foul — Club World Cup had some shining moments, but it remains divisive

Daily Maverick

2 days ago

Player welfare remains a major talking point after the first edition of Fifa's global club tournament, which concluded in the US this month.
It came in dragging a mixed bowl of ingredients such as controversy, optimism for a new dawn, derision and apprehension. After its conclusion, Fifa's revamped Club World Cup is still a divisive subject. What worked and what didn't work during the month-long spectacle, which was won by English side Chelsea?
From a purely footballing perspective there were a few takeaways, not least that Chelsea appear to be heading to much calmer waters since the club was plunged into turbulence in 2022. That year, the UK government sanctioned Chelsea's Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, during a crackdown on Russian oligarchs after Moscow invaded Ukraine. This forced him to sell the club.
Blues on the right path
Since then, the Blues have endured tough times, despite being taken over by a US consortium headed by American businessperson Todd Boehly. This includes finishing a lowly 12th during the 2022/23 season.
Under Enzo Maresca, the third permanent manager Chelsea have had since the US takeover, some stability has been established, as evidenced by the 3-0 demolition of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Club World Cup final.
'The last few years have not been what the club deserves or what the history of this club says. This year, luckily, has gone quite well,' Maresca said.
'We finished top four [in the Premier League] and qualified for the Champions League. In the Conference League, we managed to win it, and now we are in this final. We are very proud to help the club get back to where it deserves to be,' he added.
PSG power
Despite losing the final, PSG played some of the most enterprising soccer at the tournament. It's a clear sign that Luis Enrique's team will once again be a force to be reckoned with next season – especially as they undertake the daunting task of defending their European Champions League title.
Central to this will be Désiré Doué. The young French star impressed in the US, underlining his quality and strengthening the widespread belief that he will become one of the most influential players of his generation. For his twinkle-toed displays in North America, Doué was crowned young player of the tournament.
Although a number of teams walked away from the tournament having increased their respective global profiles and fattened their pockets from the $1-billion total prize money, it was the Brazilian teams that truly caught the eye.
'The South American teams coming to this tournament here showed fantastic attitude, to prove a point that they're good teams,' said 1990 Fifa World Cup winner Jürgen Klinsmann. 'And the other teams, the Europeans… they really showed up. They embraced this tournament and we saw fantastic football throughout.'
Player welfare
Despite some of these positives, the tournament has been the subject of heavy criticism, particularly in relation to player welfare. Footballers such as Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and his former Manchester City teammate Rodri have been vocal about the extra workload that will come with the expanded Club World Cup, even though it is a quadrennial tournament.
Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp is another critic of the tournament, which has grown from just seven participating teams to the 32 that played in the US in 2025. Klopp has labelled the showpiece 'the worst idea ever implemented in football'.
'Last year we had the Copa America and European Championship, this year the Club World Cup and next year the World Cup,' Klopp told German news channel Welt.
'This means no real recovery for the players who are there, neither physically nor mentally…'
Global soccer player union Fifpro has also spoken out against the Club World Cup for the same reasons as Klopp, and accused world soccer governing body Fifa of being a bully.
Scathing attack on Fifa
In the aftermath of the tournament, Fifpro president Sergio Marchi released a scathing statement aimed at Fifa. He minced no words as he addressed player welfare as well as the harsh weather conditions in which some matches were played.
'Although the recent Club World Cup generated enthusiasm among many supporters and allowed some of the biggest names in world football to be seen in the same tournament, Fifpro cannot fail to point out, with absolute clarity, that this competition hides a dangerous disconnection with the true reality that most footballers around the world are going through,' Marchi said.
'What was presented as a global festival of football was nothing more than a fiction staged by Fifa, driven by its president, without dialogue, without sensitivity and without respect for those who sustain the game with their daily efforts.
'A grandiloquent staging that inevitably recalls the 'bread and circuses' of Nero's Rome – entertainment for the masses while behind the curtain the inequality, precariousness and lack of protection of the real protagonists deepens,' stated Marchi.
'The tournament also took place under unacceptable conditions, with matches being played in extremely hot weather and at temperatures that put the physical integrity of the players at risk. This situation must not only be denounced, but must also be strongly condemned. Under no circumstances must this happen again at next year's Fifa World Cup.
'You can no longer play with the health of footballers to feed a marketing machine. No spectacle is possible if the voice of the protagonists is turned off.'
'The next best thing'
In spite of this harsh criticism, Fifa president Gianni Infantino is upbeat about the future of a tournament that he conceptualised. Infantino believes his idea can only become better in the future, judging from this first iteration.
'The golden age of club football has started. We can definitely say this Club World Cup has been a huge success,' he said.
'We heard that financially it would not work, that nobody is interested. But I can say we generated almost $2.1-billion in revenues, for 63 matches. That makes an average of $33-million per match – no other club competition in the world comes close. It is already the most successful club competition in the world.
'All the teams who have come here have been happy. Some teams who didn't come here because they didn't qualify were calling us to see how they could qualify…
'We created something new, something which is here to stay, something which is changing the landscape of club football.'
Whether it is changing club soccer for better or for worse remains a prickly talking point.
The next edition of the tournament is set for 2029 and a host is yet to be selected. DM