With an eye-watering $1 billion in prize money, some of the biggest stars in the game and clubs competing from across the globe, FIFA’s new Club World Cup has all the ingredients to be a huge event.
But the 32-team tournament, which will be played across the USA from June 14 to July 13, has faced criticism and scepticism since the moment FIFA president Gianni Infantino began to float the idea.
As a completely new arrival in an already crowded football landscape it remains to be seen whether the competition proves able to carve out a regular place in the calendar.
Players representatives, such as global union FIFPRO, have warned of excessive workload on players while others have questioned whether fans will turn out in big enough numbers for the group stage fixtures.
“Players will have to perform at the end of an 11-month season with little prospect of getting enough rest before the following season starts,” FIFPRO warned when FIFA.
Certainly the event adds to an already busy schedule for the world’s top players. Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram and Paris Saint-Germain’s Desire Doue both played in UEFA’s Champions League final on May 31 and then switched shirts to represent their country in the Nations League finals in Germany days later.
They have since rejoined their clubs for the new FIFA tournament in which both sides are expected to advance to the latter stages.
Those games late in the tournament, likely to feature the top European clubs against the best South American sides, should draw big crowds but it remains to be seen how well ticket sales go for the group-stage games with less globally famous clubs from Asia, North America and Africa included.
