FIFA's expanded Club World Cup an exercise in self indulgence

The Herald Scotland

07-06-2025

It went like this: "Truly, and for the first time, club football will unite the world – and Qatar Airways will be a key partner to the FIFA Club World Cup in making this happen."
It's just an incredible collection of words, isn't it? Although it does seem somewhat at odds with the current global news cycle, one dominated by death and suffering. Self-awareness, it seems, doesn't matter when there's tickets to Botafogo vs Seattle Sounders on a Monday afternoon needing punted.
The man behind this masterpiece in corporate-sponsored waffle was, of course, FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
This expanded Club World Cup is his brainchild, a project the head of world football's governing body has pursued so relentlessly that it must surely be in response to a voracious appetite within the game for it to happen. Again, though, that jars with players' union FIFPRO last year filing a complaint to the European Commission over FIFA's 'imposition of the international match calendar', citing this summer's Club World Cup, and the 2026 World Cup.
As well as raising concerns around player welfare, the complaint read: "FIFA's behaviour also threatens the economic and social sustainability and stability of important national competitions which have been enjoyed for generations by fans in Europe and around the world."
Just this week, Manchester City's Manuel Akanji diplomatically suggested he and his team-mates were 'not overjoyed' about participating following a season in which they already competed in four competitions.
"FIFA can forget about it," said Carlo Ancelotti in May, then still Real Madrid manager, albeit he then went on to say that his misgivings were around his club's participation being financially undervalued. Real did eventually accept the invite.
Still, though, all of this is hardly a ringing endorsement of an event FIFA have heralded as the 'pinnacle of club football'. The pinnacle for who?
The fans? Ticket prices for the opening game - Inter Miami vs Ah-Ahly, in Miami - have been cut amid reports that 'tens of thousands' of seats remain unsold. Most supporters would surely rather their team were afforded a bit of recovery time before the games that really matter swing round again before long.
Pinnacle for the players, then? I think unions filing complaints to the European Commission suggests there's a bit of dissent among them.
The whole thing just feels incredibly forced.
Inter Miami qualified via winning the MLS Supporter's Shield - having the most points at the end of the 'regular' season - and not whoever prevails in the ensuing play-offs and claims the MLS Cup, regarded as the top prize in US domestic football. Would those qualifying criteria have applied if one Lionel Messi were not an Inter Miami player? I couldn't possibly say.
And then there was the downright bizarre episode at the end of last month when Infantino appeared as a guest of YouTuber ' iShowSpeed' - a guy who moves and talks as though somebody pressed a fast-forward button and it got stuck - to insinuate Cristiano Ronaldo could make an appearance at the Club World Cup via the 'special transfer window' implemented for competing clubs. You do wonder how the club who actually employs Ronaldo, Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr, felt about that.
Modern football lost the plot a while ago, but the president of FIFA doing his best Fabrizio Romano act on a live stream to millions of people, most of them probably bored kids who'd never heard of him, was one of those moments that raised the thought of whether it's actually me who is out of touch, who no longer understands the audience FIFA is trying to appeal to.
Never fear, though, because if you prefer your Club World Cup content a little more retro, then Panini have a released a good, old-fashioned sticker album commemorating it. And, if you're lucky enough to get hold of the right sticker pack then you could bag yourself a gold sticker of - yes, you guessed it - Gianni Infantino.
I'm beginning to think that complaint from FIFPro has a point about 'imposition'.
Is this really what FIFA, and the man spearheading it, should be about? Their role, as I understand it, is to promote, govern and protect the game worldwide, not impose their own vanity projects upon it. Concerns from players, apathy from fans, all of it seemingly ignored to press on with a gimmicky tournament that nobody asked for.
That includes the clubs themselves, who could have taken a stand, but a share of the $1bn prize pot will obviously hold significant sway, especially on those from nations who could never dream of competing financially with the heavyweight European outfits. But that itself ties back in with FIFPro's concerns over the tournament threatening the economic stability of domestic competitions.
If a select few clubs from less financially lucrative leagues can bank millions upon millions simply from being invited to the Club World Cup, how does that help grow that league as a whole? We've already seen the effect of Champions League money on the smaller European top-flights, where one-team dominance is becoming the norm in several places
And so, if the money is always there, then the new and improved Club World Cup is likely here to stay. It doesn't seem to matter if fans, the lifeblood of the game, or the players themselves aren't particularly keen. The two most important groups, and yet always at the back of the room when these decisions are taken.