On 11th February 2023, Real Madrid begrudgingly became the
World Champions in Morocco, North Africa. For most of the teams, especially those
from South America, the FIFA Club World Cup is a rare chance to test their mettle against the
European elite. So, during the tournament, the fans from Global South come in their droves.
In Japan in 2012, over 25,000 Corinthians supporters arrived from Brazil, many having
quickly gathered the cash to travel by selling their cars, even their fridges. Just a handful
of Chelsea fans bothered to make the journey from London, their support swelled by the global
popularity of the English Premier League and the local Japanese Chelsea supporters' club.
When Flamengo reached the Club World Cup in 2019 over 30,000 fans traveled whilst
Liverpool mainly relied on their huge fanbase in the Middle East to give them support;
the recent incarnation of the tournament has always been an unloved oddity in Europe,
seen as a distraction from the more important grind.
But politics has long been at the heart of the Club World Cup. And it is again. When
Real Madrid claimed victory at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Morocco, it was one of the
last times the tournament would look as it did. In fact, the tournament has become a new front
in FIFA’s war against UEFA and the world's most lucrative competition, the UEFA Champions League.
In March 2018, in the Colombian capital Bogotá, Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, stood to
speak in front of the FIFA Council and made them an offer he thought they could not refuse.
He had been approached with a proposal that could change football forever. A
proposal for a revamped Club World Cup, massively expanded to include the biggest European clubs.
The deal had a lot of moving parts. As well as a 24-team Club World Cup,
there would be a global international tournament modeled on UEFA's Nations League. And, most
importantly, rights to FIFA’s vast and highly lucrative archive of intellectual property:
videos, photos, computer games, the works. At the time the New York Times calculated that
the Club World Cup was likely worth no more than $100 million in total. So the sum being offered,
and conveyed by Infantino, came as a huge shock: $25 billion. However, there was a catch.
The deal was so commercially sensitive that a non-disclosure agreement was needed. As a result,
Infantino couldn't tell the FIFA Council who was behind it. But he wanted the FIFA Council to vote
it through anyway, claiming that there was a deadline before the deal would be withdrawn.
Unsurprisingly, this raised a lot of questions, including over player welfare and an already
congested calendar. Few of them were answered. Over the following months more details dripped
out, including information about the role of SoftBank, the huge Japanese conglomerate,
and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But the ferocity of
opposition - including from UEFA & some of the top European clubs - saw SoftBank
pull out. It didn't stop Infantino, though. Next, he turned to the US investment bank The
Raine Group, which oversees the sale of European super clubs. His aim was to raise the $1billion
necessary to kick start the tournament. FIFA announced a much scaled down version with a pilot
24 team tournament taking place in China in 2021. But the Coronavirus pandemic and a clash with the
rescheduled 2020 European Championships and the Olympic Games saw the plan shelved indefinitely.
Europe's top clubs would have boycotted it anyway. But the zombie tournament would not die. At a
press conference in Doha during the World Cup in December Infantino announced that the new Club
World Cup would begin in 2025, likely to be hosted in the US, but this time as an even larger 32 team
tournament. The move blindsided Europe's elite clubs. The powerful European Clubs Association,
which represents 220 European club sides, had already refused to back the move.
So, why would Infantino back such a radical move? Firstly,
Infantino believes that the power and wealth of football should be shared with the rest of
the world. But there are other possible reasons. European club football is booming and increasingly
out of reach of global football's governing body. The English Premier League was effectively spun
off from the English FA when it was created. Private equity firms are buying clubs but also
whole leagues. In 2021 CVC Capital Partners invested over €2 billion in Spain's La Liga.
A failed attempt at a breakaway European Super League, another direct competitor to UEFA's
Champions League, would have further complicated things, even though it is believed Infantino
privately backed the move, perhaps as it would have significantly weakened Čeferin and UEFA,
before coming out against it late in the day. Meanwhile FIFA is still recovering from the
financial hit it took after decades of corruption scandals. Almost all of FIFA's revenue comes
from the men's World Cup final every four years. Qatar 2022 will bring in $7.5 billion in revenue,
$1 billion above FIFA's projections. Which is perhaps why Infantino has pushed other ideas,
some successful, some not. He was successful in pushing through an expanded 48 team men's
World Cup finals. But not his idea to host the tournament every two years.
Both ideas would be hugely lucrative for FIFA and its membership associations,
especially in Africa and Asia, who want their teams to be invited and compete in more elite
club and international competitions. Within the FIFA Congress of 211 membership associations,
Europe and South America are in the minority. Both Infantino and Alexander Čeferin, UEFA
President, know that the idea of an expanded Club World Cup lives or dies with the participation of
Europe's elite clubs. The idea in and of itself isn't a bad one. With concerns over whether a
48 team World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico in 2026 will be too unwieldy, a truly global club
world championship pitting a host of teams from Africa, Europe, the Americas and beyond against
each other, one that has real jeopardy, could be a huge draw. But, much like the idea of the
failed European Super League, it could come at the expense of the current continental tournaments.
There are two visions of football ahead. One based on UEFA's already wildly successful model
where European super clubs reign supreme. Or an untested global vision under FIFA.
Whoever wins, Čeferin or Infantino, will do more than just have their say over a
new tournament. They could also usher in a new world order for the global game.