Here are the OPTA rankings of the teams involved in the CWC. Only half of the top ten teams in the world are involved, 8 of the top 20, and 10 of the top 50. Why should I watch again? 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 11, 14, 15 22, 25, 58, 62, 74, 79, 82, 92 109, 112, 122, 124, 129, 133, 135 158, 175 231, 239, 268, 269 380, 394, 669, 670
Sounders (players) not happy with Club World Cup money: ‘There’s no incentive for us to play’: https://www.seattletimes.com/sports...cup-money-theres-no-incentive-for-us-to-play/ Elsewhere, Real Madrid players are looking at €1M each: https://sports.yahoo.com/article/huge-bonus-awaits-real-madrid-070000322.html
So under the CBA, if Seattle, Miami or LAFC win the CWC the players will get an average of $45k each (based on a 22 man roster).
That's what the players association collectively bargained for. Seems rather short sighted on their part.
Looks like the prize money is subject to withholding tax: https://dailysports.net/news/al-ahl...ssue-ahead-of-fifa-club-world-cup-what-is-it/ Interesting. I presume the same applies to the World Cup next year? Quite a complex tax picture, with multiple hosts and multiple double taxation agreements. Not to mention, some teams will play in multiple tax jurisdictions.
Club America fall short of four straight Mexican league titles after a 2-0 loss to Toluca 🏆❌Next up they face MLS side LAFC with the last FIFA Club World Cup spot on the line 👀 pic.twitter.com/zLaay10wPm— OneFootball (@OneFootball) May 26, 2025 Club America with the pressure of “saving their season” against LAFC. No Liga MX. No CCC.
This is why this tournament would be so much better if Europe was excluded. No one in Europe seems to care and the competition would be more interesting without these teams involved. Even if the prize money was half of what it is now, that would still be big money for the rest of these federations.
Europe is what makes it commercially viable. They didn't book all these NFL stadiums for Espérance de Tunis.
I think the trophy collection for the super clubs isn't just for prestige. They need that prize money for ffp bookkeeping.
No real way to tell it this is true since it's never been done before. Leagues Cup was created and became commercially viable and much like the CWC it's still evolving. Also since this tournament in its new format hasn't been played yet, we still don't know if it's viable. Not to mention the European teams get paid a lot more just for qualifying. Real Madrid will collect over 38 million before they play a game and of the12 teams from Europe the lowest prize for qualifying is over 12 million. You could take seven from from CONCACAF, AFC, CAF nine from CONMEBOL & two from OFC, play in smaller stadiums and still make money for everyone involved.
The motivating factor for all of the other confederations to support a Club World Cup is that they are otherwise cut off from competition against the world's top clubs. It's a big disruption to everybody's schedule and they're not going to do it for the chance to play Ulsan. And based on ticket sales so far, the biggest driver of fan interest is Europe.
Well before this year only one European team was involved. They still played without the biggest driver. Plenty of folks want to see a Champions League with CONCACAF & CONMEBOL there's plenty of reason to believe this could be successful. There's probably more chance these teams would compete on a more level playing field and could win. Europe doesn't need the CWC as you can tell they think it's a burden for them.
So you want a tournament to determine the second best confederation and think there is enough money in that?
Yes. I think it's a better way to grow the rest of the world. Nine teams from Europe getting in by the pathway is helping by having Chelsea getting over 30 million just to show up because? Three million possibly going to two teams in Oceania instead would make a bigger impact I believe.
I agree that the number of European teams makes this a UCL redux, but without them the tournament becomes a small event with 10-15k average attendance in most places in the world.
What if they just had the European participants be the highest ranked clubs that actually want to go (basically extend invites to the top and work your way down if anyone says no)? Surely the Newcastles/Villas/Spurs etc. would be champing at the bit more than the perennial UCL sides and it'd still be interesting and more fairly matched to boot. I dunno, maybe I'm being too idealistic.
Then it would be an invitational tournament and not a world championship... Basically they overreached making this thing so big. The only club world cup format that makes sense is what they currently call the intercontinental cup where other confederations play for the right to play a single game for the title against the ECL champions. But there isn't enough money in that either.
Precisely. I question whether the tournament prize money would be even 10% of what it is without European participation. Although not a perfect comparison, there is a reason no truly successful club world championship exists in other sports, such as ice hockey, basketball, and baseball - without NHL, NBA, and MLB participation. There is the FIBA Intercontinental Cup, but it doesn't even feature the strongest European clubs. Let's see how the new Rugby CWC does. Say what you want about the snooty European elite, but they are descending from Mount Olympus this summer to play mere mortals - even if the primary motivation is financial in nature. This is an impossibility in other sports.
Rugby union needs something. Outside of France, New Zealand and South Africa it's in a financial crisis.
You act like all these Federations don't have champions leagues, some very successful. From the sound of things if this tournament was played in Europe, it might only draw 10-15K. I understand it won't have the same impact without UEFA but that doesn't mean it would be a small event. If the prize for the whole tournament was only 300 million and each team received 5 million for making the tournament with 140 million left, teams would be happy to play.
You're probably off by at least an order of magnitude on the kind of prize money that tournament could support.
I agree that the tournament is too big, but the previous CWC format sucked, and unless the Intercontinental Cup rakes in money, it’ll be dead in 2 years. That tournament has no reason to exist at all anymore besides grifting. This same tournament with 16 teams would be fine. 4 each from UEFA and CONMEBOL, 2 each from CAF, AFC, and Concacaf, 1 from Oceania, and a host team, with mini-playoffs to determine which of the 4 recent continental winners goes into the full tournament from the smaller confederations. When you have Red Bull Salzburg representing UEFA in this thing, you know it’s overextended.
I do like Intercontinental cup. At least you know most teams are the champions of their confederations.
I'm sure much like this one FIFA would need to add revenue to get it up off the ground and running. They're marketing this one with next year's World Cup. Copa Libertadores total prize money is more than 300 million and I think you could sell this with no problem to all the other confederations. None who seem to be complaining by the way and would have a much better chance of winning.