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Waves of police, YouTubers and little fanfare as Club World Cup begins

Waves of police, YouTubers and little fanfare as Club World Cup begins

Times9 hours ago

It's Saturday afternoon in Miami and as usual traffic is crawling up the northbound side of Highway 95. Even in the 'Express Lane', where locals pay a small fee to supposedly dodge traffic, there is gridlock.
As they sat in their air-conditioned cars those locals noticed the huge billboard advertising the opening game of Fifa's new $1billion Club World Cup tournament between Inter Miami and Al Ahly, which would take place later that evening at the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL side Miami Dolphins.
Alongside a picture of the glowing gold trophy that 32 teams from six continents are fighting for was an image of Lionel Messi in a Miami shirt and the words: 'It's Showtime.'
The billboard flickered to the next advert, from the Mexican beer Modelo.

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Bayern Munich, the perennial German champion, listed lower-bowl tickets for its opener Sunday in Cincinnati for as low as $107 when its tickets went on sale in December; on Saturday, tickets were being resold on Stubhub for half that. For as little as $8, fans can watch a June 25 game between the Japanese Urawa Red Diamonds and Mexican side C.F. Monterrey. "We anticipace great attendances and electric atmospheres at its inaugural edition, with excitement growing with every round of matches and the tournament ultimately standing as the undisputed pinnacle of club world football," FIFA said, in part of a statement sent to NBC News. "The appetite speaks for itself: fans from over 130 countries have already purchased tickets. The top 10 markets are led by the United States, followed by Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Portugal — a clear sign of global anticipation and reach." 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