Fifa's Club World Cup gamble

The Club World Cup kicks off late tonight when Inter Miami host Al Ahly, Egypt’s dominant team, in Florida. Fifa president Gianni Infantino has promised the new 32-team tournament will be the “pinnacle of club football”, yet many have been wondering if anyone will tune in.

Players are unhappy at being asked to play yet more matches while domestic leagues complain that an already overcrowded calendar is at breaking point. A report from Deloitte this week warned that football’s “insatiable appetite for growth” risks having a negative effect on club finances through higher wage demands, while another from Fifpro called for a guaranteed 4-week off-season break and mandatory time off during the season.

Yet Fifa and Uefa are pulling in the other direction. Commercially, the CWC has been an uphill battle. A lack of appetite among traditional broadcasters and big streamers led to a global rights deal with DAZN, now backed by the Saudi state.

In the UK, half the games will also be shown on Channel 5, after the BBC and ITV decided it wasn’t worth interrupting their existing summer plans. Sponsors have been reluctant too. Fifa announced a new commercial partner just two days before the tournament starts (Airbnb will be the official alternative players accommodation and experiences booking platform) points to a late scramble.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund joined the ranks of sponsors just a week earlier. Ticket prices have reportedly been slashed to drum up demand on the ground, while the threat posed by the hardline stance on immigration in the US may cool appetite for travelling fans.

According to The Athletic, US Customs and Border Protection took down a social media post this week that had highlighted the presence of its agents outside each of the host venues.

Despite all the gripes, the Club World Cup is still shaping up to be something of a game-changer. In getting this far, Fifa has firmly established itself as an important player in club football. The size of the prize pot — the winner will take home up to $125mn — makes it as lucrative as winning the Champions League.

For clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester City, who faltered in the competition this year, this offers something of a do-over, and helps explain why there has been a flurry of transfer activity in the last couple of weeks as top clubs look to maximise their chances.

But there’s one question that will only be answered in the coming weeks: is the actual football going to be any good? Data consultancy Twenty First Group is not optimistic, pointing out that the Club World Cup will feature 50 of the world’s top 100 players, compared to 72 at the World Cup in Qatar.

The group stage games, on paper at least, look pretty lopsided, while a European team has a 95 per cent chance of winning the whole thing. Meanwhile three of the most popular teams in the world failed to qualify, potentially cutting off an important source of fan attention.

Whether Fifa’s land grab has paid off won’t be clear for a month, and possibly not for a few years when they presumably look to do it all again. In the coming month, there’s a real prospect that elite teams will end up playing in empty stadiums. Glory could well be measured solely in US dollars.

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