Expanded FIFA Club World Cup: Tournament News & General Discussion [R]

FIFA president Gianni Infantino promised global broadcasters in a video call on Friday that venues in the United States for the FIFA Club World Cup next June and July will be announced by the end of September, increasing the pressure on his organisation to finalise negotiations with stadiums and cities across the country within 10 days.

The Athletic revealed on Thursday that Infantino had called the emergency briefing with broadcasters as he sought to persuade them of the merits of the tournament, with football’s world governing body FIFA seeking billions in TV revenue to fund participation and prize money for competing clubs. Broadcasters have, however, so far been reluctant to get anywhere near FIFA’s demands for the tournament.

A global streaming deal with Apple was originally reported by The New York Times to be close but that did not materialise. FIFA then launched a media rights tender in July for both the 2025 and 2029 editions of the tournament in the hope it would raise interest and competition.

The 32-team tournament will take place in the U.S. next summer but venues, training bases, sponsors and broadcasters are yet to be announced. Clubs are also increasingly impatient to learn how much they can expect to receive from the competition, with Europe’s largest sides budgeting for UEFA Champions League-style returns from competing in FIFA’s revamped tournament. It is not known at this stage where the 2029 competition will take place.

The majority of the venues next year will be on the east coast of the U.S., with the west coast largely blocked off for the CONCACAF Gold Cup which is happening also between June and July next summer.

The Athletic has previously reported that MLS side Seattle Sounders are expected to play at least one Club World Cup game at Lumen Field, a 68,000-seater stadium that is home to NFL team Seattle Seahawks, the Sounders and Seattle Reign of the NWSL, but this is expected to be the only east coast venue.

We have also previously reported that a mix of NFL and MLS venues across New York, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Nashville and Cincinnati have been under consideration.

Certainty over the venues will provide some comfort to broadcasters amid a spate of concerns that have plagued the organisation of the tournament, but it remains to be seen whether the TV networks will show the same enthusiasm for the competition as Infantino.

He was joined on the call by Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is also the chair of the European Club Association, while executives from Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Porto, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Red Bull Salzburg also showed support.

FIFA declined to comment but confirmed it expects to announce venues within weeks and that further announcements are hoped for ahead of the draw, which will take place in December.

(The Athletic)

 

Isn't the fundamental problem with the expanded Club WC that as far as the European audience is generally concerned club football finishes after the UCL final at the end of May and then resumes with the UEFA club competition qualifiers starting in mid-July?

Once the June NT window is finished the whole men's game basically stops for holidays until mid-July in odd years.

How do you sell what is effectively the resumption of the club season in mid-June?

I appreciate the situation is or should be very different elsewhere in the world.

 

In hindsight, I wonder whether giving Europe 12 places might have been a mistake given that there will probably be significantly more interest from the other continents.

 

Ah, that's why the annual competition continues!

They will use the same trophy for it and it will be the successor to the Club WC as we have known it hitherto, which then contractually frees FIFA to market the expanded competition as a completely new commercial property.

 

So um let me get this straight... the old FIFA Club World Cup will be in Qatar then later this year?
Awesome! And Real Madrid go straight to the final??!!! Oh well, fair enough I guess...

 

Maybe but I feel that without a significant number of the top European teams the interest from other continents will drop off.

 

wouldn’t surprise anyone, knowing FIFA it could be some sort of “gift“ to morocco for not giving them any really significant games one year later

 

The timing is the smallest of all the problems. People in London or Amsterdam don't care what Man City does against Wydad AC no matter when they play. Heck, I doubt City fans care much.

 

it is a mess that probably wouldn’t have been in any other country but they chose US so it is their problem. for all of us watching in telly not a problem at all, for those few that plan to travel maybe a bit, but you can‘t do any serious planning prior to the draw anyway. and FIFA not being able to maximize their profit, once for a change, doesn‘t bother anyone.

 

People will still be super interested in England v Tunisia in the group stage of the WC, which is what the comparison is intended to be

 

It should bother the participating clubs and developing countries because I'd imagine part of the revenue would be reserved for solidarity payments to all of FIFA's members.

We need to remember that higher FIFA revenues = more competitive FIFA competiitions because the money is distributed globally, not to just one continent or one country.

 

Yes, potentially it is a mega-event.

I actually wonder whether it should be 48 teams - same format as the WC from 2026 (12 groups of 4 clubs each and the knockout stage starting with a R32) so you can involve more countries, assuming the cap of 2 clubs per country (excluding continental champions) is maintained. The access list could be:

AFC: 8 clubs
CAF: 8 clubs
Concacaf: 6 clubs
Conmebol: 8 clubs
OFC: 2 clubs
UEFA: 16 clubs

If every domestic premier league was capped at 18 clubs - so each club played a maximum of 34 league games - this should be feasible because clubs would play 16 fewer domestic premier league games over a 4-year cycle.

As a product, 18 club divisions are superior to 20 and 20+ club divisions.

 

That might also be because NT football is scarcer (only about 20% of all games, club football the other 80%).

Nevertheless, clashes of major global clubs competing to be world champions should be very appealing, particularly because it enables clubs outside Europe to get a shot at beating major UCL clubs.

 

sure, maybe it should, but I do not think anyone outside FIFA is making any thoughts about it

 

Nah. Aside from the prestige issue (or lack thereof), the size of football clubs is overrated. Take Man City for e.g.. One of the best teams in the world. Their fan base? Basically, one half of Manchester. City population: 600k versus England population: 57mn (100 to 1 ratio)

But what about all the fans outside England? Yeah, not gonna change that ratio by much. That's why I laugh when FIFA puts revenue estimates for this tournament so high (I think I saw one that was one-third of WC revenue )

 

absolutely! not doable in 2025, by far not, but it might change in the future. noone can really estimate how the thing might develop and how new football markets could react

 

https://www.concacaf.com/gold-cup/a...s-host-cities-and-stadiums-for-2025-gold-cup/

CONCACAF released the Gold Cup venues today. Entirely west of the Mississippi in anticipation of the Club World Cup. However, Gianni is still taking dino years to announce the East Coast venues (as well as Seattle for the Sounders, the Rose Bowl for getting a second Pacific city, and whatever club wins the MLS Cup).