The new version of the Club World Cup "cold and hot"

Workers Daily-China Engineering Network reporter Li Yuanhao

After experiencing a dull opening game of mutual exchange of white papers, the first new version of the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 (hereinafter referred to as the "Club World Cup") finally ushered in popularity with the appearance of European giants such as Bayern Munich - the Bundesliga champion in the first round of the group stage defeated New Zealand's Auckland City with 10 goals, and the gap between the five major league champions and the Oceania champions was fully revealed. Before the game, the media predicted that some events might lose competition due to the huge gap in strength, and finally became a reality.

It can be foreseen that similar doubts and controversies will accompany this Club World Cup held in the United States from June 15 to July 14. The new version of the Club World Cup, which was intended to be the "Club World Cup" by FIFA President Infantino, has caused huge controversy in international football since the beginning of preparation.

On the one hand, FIFA packaged the Club World Cup as the "club highest honor", and its total prize of up to $1 billion has successfully created popularity; on the other hand, many clubs, especially European football giants, have criticized the intensive schedule, and the players of the departmental giants publicly boycotted the competition, and the empty stands after the start of this Club World Cup made FIFA feel even more embarrassed. Behind the "cold and hot" of the Club World Cup, a new round of interest game in international football has begun.

The goal is ambitious

When it has the men's World Cup, the most popular super brand event in international football and even the world sports (such as the total revenue of the 2022 Qatar World Cup was as high as US$5.769 billion), why does FIFA still create a new version of the Club World Cup? This is a common question in international football after Infantino launched the new version of the Club World Cup. The reasons behind

are actually not difficult to explore.

The rise of modern football club events is closely related to the development process of football professionalization. While FIFA has devoted himself to creating national team events such as the World Cup, he has not paid much attention to club events for a long time. When the first Club World Cup hosted by FIFA was unveiled in Brazil in 2000, the UEFA Champions League held by UEFA has been ongoing for nearly half a century and is recognized as the most influential and highest-level club event in global football.

"It is better to retreat and weave a net than to envy the fish in the abyss." Faced with European club events such as the Champions League and economic influence (for example, teams can win 18.62 million euros in this season's Champions League main competition), FIFA, which has been trying to expand its economic territory in recent years, will naturally not sit idly by. Under the planning of Infantino and his team, an ambitious new version of the Club World Cup has emerged.

According to FIFA's vision, the new version of the Club World Cup has expanded to 32 teams, with specific seats being: 12 teams in Europe, 6 teams in South America, 4 teams in Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, and 1 team in Oceania. With the host team, the schedule has also been extended to nearly one month. According to reports, a total of players from 81 countries and regions participated in this Club World Cup, which is the best club competition.

Secondly, the new event sponsorship and bonus distribution system makes the new version of the Club World Cup a veritable "Golden League". The total prize money of this Club World Cup reached a record $1 billion, far exceeding the World Cup, of which the champion team had a prize of $40 million.

Reality is unsatisfactory

Infantino said: "The World Club World Cup bonus distribution model represents the highest level of club football." The new version of the World Club World Cup represents the beginning of FIFA's "promoting the true globalization of football", "This is a world-class platform for clubs and teams from all continents to compete in the same game."

Although the plan for the new version of the World Club World Cup is very grand, the specific preparation process is controversial. The most important question is that this Club World Cup is hard to be called "the showdown between the strongest clubs in the world".

According to FIFA's new version of the Club World Cup rules, this event will invite all teams that have won the Intercontinental Championship between 2021 and 2024, but at the same time, quotas will be allocated based on the relative strength of the football federations of each continent. In this way, the final "status" of the participating teams and the positioning of the new version of the Club World Cup are somewhat unreal.

Take Europe, which has the highest overall professional football level as an example. Although as many as 12 teams participated in this Club World Cup, all giants such as Barcelona, ​​Liverpool and Naples, which just won their respective league championships this season, were absent, and even the new Portuguese Super League champion Portugal Sports were not included. No wonder some European media wrote an article before the game: UEFA did not send the 12 best teams.

The absence of many giant teams has caused extremely influential stars such as Yamal and Salah to miss the Club World Cup, and it has also directly caused the attention of this Club World Cup to show a polarization trend.

According to ticket sales, the attendance rate of this Club World Cup is uneven. Tickets for giants such as Real Madrid and Paris are very popular, but the ticket sales rate for non-focus events is less than 30%.

In order to avoid the embarrassment of vacant stands in blockbusters, FIFA adopted a dynamic pricing model for this Club World Cup (price fluctuates with demand), and the continued decline in ticket prices in some games reflects the cold ticket sales in the event. In order to increase attendance, FIFA has launched a student discount ticket of $20 per in some Club World Cup host cities, but the actual effect remains to be seen. The game continues. The new version of the Club World Cup has started. Infantino in the stands was proud. The viewing of the Ronaldo, Beckham and other celebrities around him also made the event full of the queue. However, the absence of senior executives of the continental Football Federation such as UEFA will still reveal clues about the new version of the Club World Cup.

Some continental football federations led by UEFA have been criticizing the schedule of the Club World Cup for a long time. The season of this Club World Cup is completely overlapping with the summer offseason of mainstream European leagues. Taking the Premier League giant Manchester City as an example, if it enters the finals of the Club World Cup, the player will have only 28 days of rest and will usher in the new Premier League season that will start on August 16.. If we add the warm-up match before the new season, the players basically cannot meet the "at least 21 days of continuous vacation" standard recommended by the International Professional Players Association.

Considering that next summer, European professional players, especially giants, will be exhausted from dealing with intensive schedules for two consecutive seasons, many clubs participating in the Club World Cup have warned: "This will significantly increase the risk of secondary injuries." Premier League legend Scholes admitted: "FIFA is letting players pay for their greed with health!"

In fact, since the preparations for the new version of the Club World Cup, the debate about which is better than the Champions League or the Club World Cup has always existed. UEFA, which already has a complete club competition system, has an intriguing attitude towards the Club World Cup. Real Madrid Club Chairman Florentino said bluntly: "The value of the Champions League is far greater than that of the Club World Cup. FIFA just wants to make money with our brand."

Although the new version of the Club World Cup is highly expected, the ultimate competitive and commercial value still needs to be tested by reality. When the final copyright income of this Club World Cup is far from the billions of dollars that Infantino expected, it is no wonder that many footballers will regard the new Club World Cup as another "adventure" for FIFA.