For the vast majority of normal minded football fans across Europe and the globe, this summers overblown, overhyped and expanded Club World Cup abomination by FIFA is growing even more bizarre and detestable with every passing day.
In theory the best clubs from across the globe should have a showpiece tournament so the best of the best can test themselves against each other in real football today when they otherwise would not meet, but in typical FIFA fashion this is not about the best interests of the game, nor the fans, and it has nothing to do with sporting integrity.
The expanded nature of the competition proves that as even if you are using football livescore to keep up with the action, you will mostly be watching the progress of even more pointless games in the calendar between sides who are simply not matched, and with it already being confirmed that should a top European club (say a Chelsea, or Manchester City for example) go all the way and lift the trophy, they will bank the princely sum of £97 million for their efforts, and that is not justifiable.
As a comparison and as football news has heavily covered, Inter Milan earned £101 million for lifting the Serie A title in 2023/24 and Sheffield United gained £109.7 million for finishing dead last in the Premier League in the same year. The Club World Cup is now nothing more, and nothing less, than a money making scheme to bolster FIFA’s own pockets, and the pockets of their favoured European based clubs in a way many would believe is blatant protectionism.
How else do you explain the clubs involved, and the simple fact that they are not shy about admitting that the shared prize fund criteria is based on different factors which means that European clubs featuring in this livescore will earn more for just taking part than clubs from other continents will? Ergo for a couple of bloated summer friendlies, the top ranked European team under FIFA’s metrics will bank £30 million for just turning up.
The stupidity does not end there though, we have already seen changes forced through for the summer transfer market to allow involved clubs to strengthen (or arguably sell for Financial Fair Play reasons), short term contracts just for the tournament are now feasibly a thing, and although it is clearly not his job, president Gianni Infantino has turned into a cheerleader for Cristiano Ronaldo by stating that ‘there are discussions’ taking place for the 40 year old Portuguese international to sign for a club involved, so that he can feature alongside long time rival Lionel Messi, who will be on show for his MLS club Inter Miami.
The last week or so with leagues coming to a finish point, has seen the varying media jump on the transfer side of things and speculate which players may, or may not, take advantage of the new window to game the system so that they can be involved in the tournament. The caveat being that they then might not be with the same club for the coming 2025/26 seasons – but Ronaldo is clearly the most high profile player mentioned so far as he will be out of contract with Saudi Arabian Pro League side Al-Nassr this summer, and they failed to qualify for the competition which will be hosted by the United States at this time of asking.
The nonsense shows no sign of coming to an end, but sadly for modern day football it is no wonder why some fans of a certain vintage believe the game that they loved is now gone.
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