FIFA is set to press ahead with its lucrative new Club World Cup despite widespread resistance to the new competition.
On Thursday, FIFA staged its ostentatious and largely farcical draw for the expanded 2025 Club World Cup, which will not simply feature the champions of the governing body’s six continental federations (and a host) but a whopping 32 teams.
The revamped tournament will boast a World Cup-style group system and will take place every four years, with clubs having discovered their fate on Thursday. The Club World Cup, staged in the United States, will serve as a prelude to the real, international showpiece held across North America in 2026.
READ MORE: FIFA Club World Cup – Draw, fixtures, dates and prize money
As such, president-elect Donald Trump featured at the draw in a pre-recorded video message in which he went out of his way to praise FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. It was perhaps the lowlight of a generally cringeworthy display of self-glorification.
Ivanka Trump and her son were present in person, as were football legends such as Ronaldo Nazario and Alessandro del Piero. Yet while watching the draw, one couldn’t help but remember that the players’ union, FIFPRO, questioned the legitimacy of the new format earlier this year.
In June, FIFPRO “submitted a legal claim against FIFA, challenging the legality of FIFA’s decisions to unilaterally set the International Match Calendar and, in particular, the decision to create and schedule the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.”
This year, an increasing number of players have spoken out against the bloated football calendar. In a cruel turn of fate, Man City midfielder and Ballon d’Or winner Rodri suffered a season-ending ACL injury shortly after claiming that players were considering going on strike.
FIFPRO has repeatedly urged FIFA and UEFA to decrease the number of games per year, demands that continue to fall on deaf ears. Earlier this week, PSG boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi insisted that the onus was on coaches to reduce their players’ workload and that the new Club World Cup will be a necessary revenue stream because of players’ ‘absurd’ salary demands.
READ MORE: The Best FIFA Football Awards 2024 – Best Men’s Player, FIFPro World XI, winner and date
Should clubs and players boycott the FIFA Club World Cup? 🤔
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) December 5, 2024
The total prize money for the tournament is estimated at $2.5 billion, so it is easy to see why club bosses like Al-Khelaifi are in favour of the tournament, even at the expense of their own players.
FIFA won’t back down, of course, so it may really require the players to take drastic action to affect change, as suggested by Rodri. Players, it seems, would have the backing of supporters in this.
A social media poll carried out by FootballTransfers suggests that fans would overwhelmingly support a player boycott of the tournament, which illustrates the fact that the expanded Club World Cup is far from a popular prospect.
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