The SHOCKING reasons why the 2025 Club World Cup is a MESS

The 2025 Club World Cup seems to be really cool on paper, but is proving to be extremely challenging in practice. Even if you put aside the fact that they don’t have the host cities or broadcasting deals sorted out yet, or the fact that there is an international tournament being played in within the same country at the exact same time, there’s still the whole scheduling and player welfare aspect of it all. There are already enough football matches (too many, in fact), and injuries are on the rise. With the timing of this tournament, will the stars even show up? And if they don’t, is it even worth playing still?
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Chelsea is the only club prepared for this

[@juniorthomas6404]

Small clubs would always prep themselves for a competition like this

[@samuel061]

@@juniorthomas6404you didnt get the joke did you?

[@AtTheBridgePod]

Everyone laughed at Chelsea, they ain’t laughing now 😂

[@laser__unicorn]

@@samuel061 There's always a village idiot in the comments 😂

[@anon7596]

We are so back! 😭

[@kmahta]

I still remember Klopp taking player sides and always questioning about fixture congestion and what not. Many rivals mocked him with he is making excuses. But he was giving warning about players playing too many games and quality dip in the football overall. No one bet an eyes until big managers, players and their favourite club started to get affected. I am not even here proping about Klopp but he was one of many who warned about such things. Sadly now players are at the worst end.

[@Brandon-nq7ys]

Pep has been screaming from the roof tops about the scheduling of fixtures for a while now

[@BiggestBirdonMars]

Pep said this way before klopp did

[@maciejbala477]

everyone says this. But FIFA only cares about money, nothing else, same with UEFA, so nobody listens. They'd make players play every day 365 days a year if it got them more money and they could get away with it

[@tbsg5834]

Klopp and Pep are the same persons who kept calling out the super league as a disgrace, yet here we are with the champions league literally stealing the super league's idea and adding much more games to boot. You reap what you sow so-called "football fans" who kept fighting the super league.

[@Agent.K.]

​@tbsg5834 That's why I wasn't against the super league. I knew uefa was making all that noise because they were not included in the idea. They care about getting money.

[@lucaslonchampt613]

You know, that December tournament still being around has been such an afterthought, FM 24 didn’t even include it. When you win the Champions League, that's it until the next cycle of FIFA Club World Cup

[@Youeube]

If Football Manager missed a detail like this then it tells you all you need to know about it. Heck I didn't even know I could speak Spanish until I saw my FM profile.

[@maciejbala477]

yeah, definitely. It's one of the most forgettable tournaments ever. Nobody actually cares. And I suspect that's also gonna be the case with the new Club World Cup. It happens so early in the season that it is basically a pre-season, I mean, transfer window is still running too... Just speaking from my experience as FM player, it's nice if you win it, but it's little more than a pre-season tourney for me.

[@akunwanneprosper7016]

It will be added in FM25

[@banthachannel5132]

FIFA taking away that one period when players finally get to rest without thinking about football.

[@arseeoliveira6934]

We need to talk about Infantino being worse than Sepp Blatter

[@plasticwalnut7650]

Truly an amazing achievement. He's the epitome of the Saturday morning cartoon villain, the kind who shuts down an orphanage to save a few dollars.

[@michaelkay5268]

Soo much worse

[@fairphoneuser9009]

And whoever will be the next FIFA president will be even worse. Sepp Blatter, and João Havelange, will look like saints compared to this successor...

[@TheJonesdude]

Blatter was just greedy and corrupt. Infantino is just downright incompetent. Why they didn't just host the first run of the competition in Europe I don't understand. Maybe he banked on the gold cup being abolished as it is a pretty useless competition, like the Copa America is all America now so just do that and drop the gold Cup. Also fuck me the USA will have hosted the copa America, the Gold Cup, the new club world cup and the world cup all in a 2 year time span. Then 2 years later they'll host the Olympics, and the RWC in 2031. And three f1 races now which they want to make 4.

[@stevencooke6451]

I just said that to somebody. Blatter was just corrupt and crowd. Infantino seems closer to evil.

[@jamiehill2671]

So a number of star players had a full season, then the Euros / Copa America. Then those same stars will have a full season, then the Club World Cup / Gold Cup. Then another full season, and the 2026 World Cup. That's three years with little time off to rest/heal. Yikes.

[@RabonaTV]

Exactly. It's going to be bad...

[@jacobalexander4167]

Then the cycle continues...

[@BiggestBirdonMars]

It's been like this for years I remember when br football made joke how players didn't have a break from football for 3 years

[@bobbywrtm]

and don't forget "Super League" format in the Champions League starting this season LOL

[@pinella19]

I mean, they are millionaires playing football, i think they will be fine

[@sfisob8814]

As a South African my team Mamelodi sundowns has to play the league, 3 domestic cups, caf champions league, African football league, send most of its players to Afcon 2025 then play this tournament. I don't think anyone can survive this🙄

[@maciejbala477]

wait, 3 domestic cups? that's insane, and I thought 2 was too much

[@Mossaab-kg3cj5hc5s]

I loved your friendly rivalry with Wydad Casablanca through the years , the only matches worth watching in the ACL .

[@MithridatesIX]

Of the Nedbank Cup, Knockout Cup and the MTN 8. Where do each of these Cups rank in importance?

[@sfisob8814]

@@Mossaab-kg3cj5hc5s Wydad will forever be our brothers✊🏼.. their current coach was our coach last season

[@sfisob8814]

Nedbank is the first, mtn 8 second, and carling cup third cos it's still new

[@raulemanuel0310]

Being a football fan in the next years basically looks like a second full time job. I don’t even want to know how many more games players at top clubs will have to be in. Starts to look like Chelsea maybe did the right thing with buying sooo many players 😂

[@maciejbala477]

Thing about buying so many players, though, is that you won't even be able to register all of them. There's a limit around 25 for every competition (with homegrown quotas etc.), and sometimes there's rules to allow u-21 players apart from that, but not always. So I'm not sure if even then, Chelsea can fit all of them in. But yeah, can see it happening, it has happened already, teams play more of their academy players, it probably could move even further in that direction

[@CodyGissel]

@@maciejbala477 filling U21 quotas shouldn’t be a problem for Chelsea, since so many of their signings are kids, but we already see players like Cole Palmer being left out of the registered Conference League squad so that is certainly something to watch for. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chelsea spoke to all of their players about which competitions they intend to play them in prior to this season starting. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they have seperate squads in mind for each competition already. but then again, it’s Chelsea we’re talking about here. i say this even as a Chelsea fan, logistics like this isn’t usually our strong suit 😂

[@daanishdan318]

They should make it grassroots. Start with a youth tournament + 3 over 23s and build it from there - Olympic style. Or even organize a 5-a-side tournament. Once it is popular/prestigious, expand it.

[@Ligmaballzallthetime]

5 a side with pros would slap ngl. Would be an interesting break from regular football.

[@eavyeavy2864]

Thats not what clout mean😅

[@AlienFinger]

Match congestion is mainly a Euro club concern, South America has been asking for this tournament for a long time.

[@FalseNi9e]

Money is in Europe

[@JohnnyJonathan]

match congestion happen a lot in south america as well, especially brazil

[@ricardoxavier827]

Match congestion happens in nations with more than 2 domestic competitions. Championship and national cup and thats it. Any other domestic competition are just flour to full the sausages.

[@barrypegg3070]

What I wonder is if the tournament survives how it will effect players contracts and transfer window. As it stands at moment Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan contracts expire halfway through the tournament.

[@nicestoriesnottherealstori3006]

Yeah, I put that in the controversies section of the Wikipedia article because it was mentioned in news.

[@maciejbala477]

Yeah, with this timing, there's basically no other option than making it a glorified pre-season tournament, not taken seriously by anyone. Clubs are way too busy with transfer business to really care, and there's international duty, and there's barely been any matches played. It'd just be a longer Community Shield or one of these pre-season tourneys which technically are tourneys, but nobody really cares about them. There's no room in the schedule for another tournament.

[@nif3869]

Adrien, even Football manager did not know that FIFA had kept the previous club world cup format and rebranded it as FIFA Intercontinental Cup

[@nicestoriesnottherealstori3006]

Yeah, though the UEFA representative will only play the final now which is one game for the champions league winner.

[@nmo9584]

AFCON 2025 was delayed from June-July to December-January because of this tournament. Adding to the insane schedule because it will be followed by a 48-team World Cup, at which there could be up to 10 African teams, almost half the teams at AFCON (24). Smh at the people making these decisions man.

[@ezraezra2928]

Also, worth noting that after the World Cup, there will be an extended international window between September and October 2026 with 4 games (I think).

[@sfisob8814]

Worse part about african football is that we also have the African Football League that made our schedule even worse

[@stevencooke6451]

Infantino seems desperate to go to war with the federations.

[@49Unbeatennnn]

Wow that Tupapa jersey is 🔥🔥 🔥

[@waynerza]

They're clearly trying to kill these players. I love football, but this is a little too much. I feel for these players, honestly.

[@maciejbala477]

Cash cows. That's all they are to them.

[@onepiecebarca]

apple broadcasting this for free would be the best business decision they would have ever made.

[@rand_xcurse6884]

I highly doubt it

[@CodyGissel]

i think an Australian broadcast deal is already signed with SBS, but that may have ended after the last iteration of the Club World Cup last year, so I could be wrong

[@ezraezra2928]

If you talk about the club that's being unlucky because of this freak schedules, I think it will be Real Madrid and Manchester City. These 2 clubs were heavily affected because they had to play a LOT of games. Real Madrid had to play in the UEFA Super Cup at the beginning of this season, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup (only Final), and the Spanish Super Cup after the winter break in January. Manchester City still had to play in both EFL and FA Cups, between the Premier League and the expanded Champions League. Additionally, this season's UCL Final will be played on May 31, only 15 days into the start of the Club World Cup. I'm also pointing out that the upcoming AFCON in Morocco will be held on mid-season of 2025/26, between December 21, 2025 and January 18, 2026. African footballers like Salah and Osimhen will obviously get tired by this freak schedule. Also, after the World Cup, the September and October windows in 2026 will be combined to include 4 games within just one window. And also, although it's off-topic, I can confirm that women's football had an unstoppable summer games between 2021 and 2025 (2 Olympics, 2 continental tournaments (Women's Euro), and a World Cup in 2023). The women's football might have a summer break during the 2026 men's World Cup. Unfortunately though, there will be a Club World Cup for the women's football and the expanded UEFA Women's Champions League with the same Swiss format as the men's side in the future.

[@danieljames9322]

Don't forget. The Finalissima is in the US too.

[@FalseNi9e]

Nobody cares about America

[@bobbywrtm]

The fact that RB Salzburg make it to the Club World Cup already describes how absurd this competition is

[@ezraezra2928]

And clubs like Benfica and Porto also qualified for this new Club World Cup, even though they weren't currently at their best form domestically.

[@MadsonMariano]

As a Brazilian, the time is perfect for brazilian teams. Our sendo starts in April, so june/july is literally mid season. I'm tired watching europeus have all the lights .

[@Coyg04-69]

Hahah i mean that trophy will only mean something to you or some other clubs outside europe

[@maciejbala477]

Yeah, I get it. But that just means that imo European teams will play reserve squads and not take it too seriously. It could make for a better tournament possibly? But it definitely will not become the new Champions League if FIFA want that, not when taking place in pre-season.

[@jonpirovsky]

​@@maciejbala477it will actually be the end of season, as in a World Cup. And I really think European clubs will play with their main squads, considering the amount of prize money that is being suggested for this...

[@samelmudir]

who in the comments asked for a 32 team FIFA Club World Cup?

[@mthokozisinkomoxulu8097]

Not Me. I Would've Kept The Original Format Just Add The Host FA Cup Winner And Have A 8 Team Group+KO Tournament. Eg Confederations Cup.

[@kazd4477]

the new cwc format is actually good if uefa didn't add more games to the ucl wait the small cwc ain't going anywhere?

[@jhonatan2632]

At this point, really hoping for Fifpro to step up and defend. At this rate we have players of young ages having more and more injuries. Clearly infantino cares about 2 things. Tv Rights and ticket sales.

[@maciejbala477]

you can make it even simpler and say it's about one thing. Money. I mean just the Qatar and Saudi Arabia world cups are indication enough of that

[@Scotch1927]

RABONA IS FULLY BACK!

[@Adamo99]

I laughed out loud when you said the logo looks a bit Pro evo! So true man!

[@EC_Nattfodd]

There is not enough football. Can we squeeze northern and southern hemisphere cups in the weekends after international breaks? As a football fan, I cannot imagine having even a day where there isn't some competition I'm supposed to care about. Jokes aside, I was so burnt out on sports after the Euros I didn't watch one Olympic event.

[@davidfurfaro]

Nope, didn't know. Thanks for educating us Adrian!

[@neshnesh4633]

The "Club World Cup" is a dead man walking 🧟‍♂️ 🚶‍♂️ 😂😂😂😂😂

[@hkmarhk]

The problem with Infantino is that he has these big ideas but never executes them properly in real life Like when he cancelled the partnership with EA Sports, he said that he wanted to partner with someone else to create the best video game for football. Great idea, but shouldn't you have already found a new video game to create the new game? If not, why don't you just keep the deal with EA Sports and get the money from them instead of having to find new revenue streams, such as creating a new club tournament in the summer smh

[@anthonykaruri6430]

I think they are waiting for 2K to bid for the rights.... But they've screwed that up most likely

[@dwayenway]

infantino is a criminal and belongs in jail. And you should watch baseball

[@flipside452]

kinda suprised you havent noticed a Besiktas buying up ex and current benfica players in their ridiculous rebuild from last seasons horrible league finish

[@George_1098]

Domestic league, domestic cup, , 2nd cup tournament in some countries, champions league (&other continental competitions), World Cup qualifying & nations leagues in between, & Now this expanding another month of the season. (Didn’t even mention “Domestic Super Cup” matches like in Spain that are taking place in a whole other continent.) That is a disaster waiting to happen in regard to players health. Many injuries will occur & I can already see some European teams not taking it serious by resting players.

[@George_1098]

@@ezraezra2928I meant “Domestic” Super Cup. Like Spains that is played in Saudi Arabia in middle of the season. I think Italy also has theirs in Saudi Arabia.

[@ezraezra2928]

@@George_1098 Sorry for the big mistakes regarding the Finalissima. And I even deleted that comment because of this. The "Domestic" Super Cup had always been played during mid-season, usually in Saudi Arabia, due to the money purposes. As for the Finalissima, it should be mentioned here (for Spain and Argentina), since both countries had a tough schedules the next year (Spain had even participated in both Nations League and World Cup qualifiers) which really affected physical conditions. Also, the next edition of AFCON, held in Morocco, will take place during the mid-season of 2025/26. So yeah, African footballers will obviously face this deadly schedules, along with that expanded World Cup.

[@stevencooke6451]

Adrian, this was a particularly effective video. The insertion of Grealsh was perfect. I prefer the Sangalo logo to the FIFA Club World Cup one actually.

[@cuginoeddie8677]

Best part of your video was that Boston,NY and Miami declined to host this so given I live a 5 min walk to the stadium in Philadelphia gives me hope we will have it.

[@nelson-ochieng]

It surely means a lot for teams outside Europe and am sure the upsets would change the trajectory of the tournament

[@raphaelbadoux8601]

I hope the club I'm supporting, Juventus, sends the U17 to participate and let the rest of the teams prepare properly. The amount of games in every season has become dangerous for player's health

[@animamaster]

As someone who lives in North America, I think I would rather watch the Concacaf Gold Cup over this meaningless Club World Cup

[@power279]

😂what now

[@bman977]

Cap if Madrid,bayen,city, Liverpool are in u Def watch and they will prob find a way of getting man utd arsenal and Chelsea in maybe juve and inter

[@George_1098]

That’s saying something & as much as I dislike the Gold Cup, I agree. Interesting to see how serious the European teams take the tournament.

[@animamaster]

@bman977 Uh no. That's why the UCL exists. I'm busy in the summer for Liga MX.. Do you really think all these big teams are going to send their best possible squad. Not take into account if the player decides to go represent their national team over their club (which most of them will)

[@stikeybee24]

Yeah no, many of us with clubs in the CWC would go 🤣

[@rhen4short]

Ah yes FIFA, a non-profit organization.

[@PincheBrayan101]

I haven’t forgotten the Club World Cup cause my dear Club Leon FC is in it and I will be rooting for them so hard, even though they are bad rn 😭

[@KarlSkorger]

i was excited about the idea of this toyrnament ...but watching this video now and all i can say is "it's sad"

[@samelmudir]

leave it to FIFA to jump from a 6-7 team tournament that lasts a week to a month long 32 team tournament. they couldn't build it up slowly? teams will just treat it like preseason friendlies

[@soccer4207]

Thank you for the extremely informative video.

[@abolacadernos7164]

Over saturation at its finest. I definitely don’t have the same passion and excitement for the game anymore which is crazy for me to say because for years and years I was football mad! I used to eat, sleep and breathe football. 😢

[@antoinesilva1527]

I agree. I’m burnt out with new formats. I’m just occasionally going back to watch old matches once in a while.

[@shawngreenjr.9548]

This is another example of changing something that doesn’t need to be changed and overloading players who are already tired after an entire season

[@ytpboss2357]

who thought an expanded club world cup would be a good idea honestly

[@jacobalexander4167]

Well, infantino?... duh

[@maciejbala477]

it is a good idea... when it comes to money. Obviously FIFA and Infantino don't care about anything else. They'd make players perform circus tricks every Friday if it brought them an extra million yearly

[@AlanHinson]

@@maciejbala477exactly, I mean why they hell do we need an expanded International World Cup? Just to add more of the lesser sides?

[@luisl7136]

Periodttt king

[@FowlPointOfView]

Rabona TV is legit!

[@MatthewDias25]

They're making the players play way too much. Careers are gonna be much shorter if this goes on.

[@philipsctba]

4:26 I knew because being Brazilian makes me completely aware of competitions that people can use to bragg

[@giodebe1827]

I know that is difficult to follow FIFA's thoughts here but the Intercontinental cup already existed, it was canceled due to the creation of club world cup in 2005. Intercontinental cup was a cup given to the winner of a 2 matches home-away games of the winners of Libertadores and Champions Cup with some epic battles on the pitch, format used up until the 90s

[@Grnvolpe]

More teams and more matches. What a surprise

[@jameshumphreys9715]

They should do it as a straight Knockout with everbody playing on the same day with 2 days rest, which only last for 9 day.

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

Ehh gotta have 3 days rest for a big tourney

[@lewisitor]

Wow International matches + Club World Cup + League matches + UEFA champions league + UEFA nations league + FA Cup + Carling cup + UEFA super cup + Community Shield , wow that’s a lot for a player for a season.

[@mikedolan5541]

Can't wait for this.Especially as UEFA have made such a mess with the new Champions League format.Will be booking my flights as soon as the fixtures are announced

[@declangaming24]

Yeah it won't work because there's apparently going to be invited nations in the gold Cup like England, Spain ect in there they need there best players. The club sides would have to play reserve or B teams the ones in Europe but south America, OFc, Asia ect wouldn't struggle

[@pahakuutti]

4 billion $ is a ridiculous valuation from fifa for the club world cup. That thing is a 'pointlessity', a trophy to be excluded from the serious trophies count, any good player has won in his career. '18 trophies, yeah sure, but 2 of those were league cups, and 1 club world cup'.

[@clawy99]

I was aware of the annual tournament. They announced it at the point the announced the new club world cup format.

[@ayaep2061]

im looking at the intercontinental cup bracketing and its screaming greed and getting that real madrid money, UEFA automatically in the final? thats not a tournament thats the rest of the world competing to see who can get one shot ant a single game of european broadcast revenue, sickening

[@leslienarcisse2268]

I knew about the December intercontinental tournament because I’m a Real Madrid fan and we’re in that tournament.

[@RabonaTV]

Makes sense!

[@opinionatortv6457]

Suffering from success

[@captainfalconmain6576]

fifa club world cup 2025 can go away

[@Latz55]

I love the Tupapa jersey, will order it for sure! 🖤🇨🇰

[@RabonaTV]

It's a beauty!

[@jordanford9320]

The logo looks like a weird apple

[@sreenivaskamath4243]

Look, even without the Club World Cup, the fixtures are incredibly packed, especially for European clubs and nations. In that way, a thought came to my mind, that, if there is a possibility to dedicate one full season just for international football, without any club football every three years. This would mean that there do not need to have international matches squeezed in between the club football season, and it would help to spread out the club fixtures somewhat alleviating the congestion of matches. This would also bring out more limelight to international football outside of the World Cup and other international tournaments. But I guess it is a radical thought, since the clubs will never allow to lose out on a full season's worth of revenue.

[@nickvickers3486]

Great video btw, just subscribed and will watch more. Honestly this tournament sounds like utter b*llox... best thing to do for footie fans is just to ignore it and if nobody watches it, it'll probably go away!

[@anavazquez6218]

I’m thinking more on a physical level for the players this summer it was euros, Copa America and the Olympics, next summer it’s the club World Cup and winter of 2026 it’s AFCON. There will be some players that will have had to play 3 summers in a row and their last real summer break was in 2023. That’s not normal. Unless the 2026-2027 league starts later, some players especially those at big clubs with 2/3 players in the same position will start playing in September. Ancelotti has already spoken about wanting to give players a break during the season

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

It’s gonna be alright relax. These smaller clubs are gonna love the payout from this tournament and will greatly help them. Same with the intercontinental cup. Who wouldn’t want to play matches against the best teams in Europe. Some of gonna pull some shocks I’m sure. Wonder how the draw will be, just an open draw? The issue is teams still playing that well almost 4 years after they earned their spot.

[@nelsoncarvalho6338]

Money money money money monnnnneeeeyyyyy!

[@DanielGermanMMorienega]

Mario Lobo SANGALO

[@MadsonMariano]

Vão ter que me engolir

[@reddevilsunited_2060]

How is this even sustainable for the human body man?

[@LiftandCoa]

If any team values the health of their players seriously they withdraw from the Interconwhatever Cup and don't even attempt to make the schedule

[@andredeketeleastutecomplex]

Infantino's head is bigger than his ideas.

[@mrbojangles8133]

interesting idea on paper

[@funky__cracky8369]

4:46 Well, that's not too far from the now dead Confederations Cup, isn't it? 😆

[@Dark_Knight2610]

Dude soo funny, i genuinly thought that shirt kindda cool 😂

[@jsachs12]

Only knew about the intercontinental tournament bc im a Real supporter and we’ll play in the final.

[@joshuaambriz8711]

Imagine Alphonsus Davies and Christian Pulisic playing in both Gold cup and Club world cup, lol

[@nicestoriesnottherealstori3006]

Eh, that probably won't happen.

[@deron19]

Milan didn’t qualify so pulisic isn’t playing

[@londresparis_1]

8:00 For people outside of South America. I'm sure that's what you meant.

[@RazzoDazzoShazazzo]

Too many games at the top end, these players aren't robots. Every org having competitions insist it will be great because more games = more fun for viewers. Really, it's because more money in their pockets is the name of the game. But viewers will be unhappy when injuries and fatigue cause their players to not play at all or be out for long periods of time because of said injuries.

[@bipedalame]

fifa needs abolished

[@jmtz3149]

Ya cuz just like everybody, us commoners get a break between June and august

[@chrismusonza5387]

Nah bad take …yes euro teams are sceptical but I’ll tell you rest of the world is hyped for this . Plus the romoured 50mil participation fee is huge for all clubs involved. Even if a European team doesn’t win the club that wins it will be immortalized (imagine if River Boca or Al Ahly ) win it that’ll be huge

[@chrismusonza5387]

Yes European stars will always complain but never heard a single player from the big clubs in the rest of the world complain those are huge games for them and bet they’re hyped for the tourney as well

[@dislexyc]

WHY HAS EVERYONE FORGOTTEN HOW TO SAY ASTERISK, WTF NORTH AMERICA?!

[@maciejbala477]

I did comment about that on the last video too lol

[@plasticwalnut7650]

Last year was the first time I had intently focused on football, yet I also had zero clue about the existence of the Club World Cup until halfway through the campaign. If you had told me this had been around the early 2000s, I couldn't have taken you seriously, for even the most apathetic Americans at least know of the World Cup and maybe even Copa America/Euros. The best case scenario for FIFA is that they're terrible at marketing this, yet given its reputation thanks to Blatter and Gianni Infantino, the executives are secluded in their ivory towers and believe that they can do anything without consequence.

[@Lucaz99]

TLDR - Pardon my rant here but Rabona is right some people care about this competition but FIFA are incompetent and corrupt despite having gold on their hands 😂 To be honest, a lot of people in South America do actually care about the FIFA Club World Cup or any tournament that used to represent an intercontinental club world cup. Winning that definitely gets used as bragging rights over any of your local rival club supporters. These days, we don’t even think about winning it to be honest but there’s an expectation from supporters of big clubs in Argentina and Brazil to at least make the final. Lately I think African teams and Asian teams have bested South America a few times, so I think the fans of these clubs/confederations also might value this competition. All this to say: you can see the potential appeal of this sort of competition right? But everyone, I mean everyone is rightly afraid of how many games they are making teams play. I can give you an example: Teams and players in Brazil already play 50-60 games every season because we have state championships in January, the league is almost all year round, plus there’s the Brazilian Cup and 2 South American club competitions that 12 Brazilian teams qualify at this point. Oh there’s also some regional competitions that some teams play outside of that as well 😂 Now there’s Club World Cup and ANOTHER TOURNAMENT IN JANUARY? How many players are we supposed to have in a squad???

[@joshuaambriz8711]

This is a weird tournament, hopefully players dont get injured

[@danieljames9322]

I knew about it. It was on Wikipedia.

[@alejandroabreu7246]

I knew about the intercontinental cup because of Real Madrids Wikipedia page for this season. I was like they’re bringing back a tournament that ended like 30 years ago and said nothing about it??

[@jmtz3149]

The us has so many stadiums it shouldn’t be a problem. mls teams have their own smaller soccer specific stadiums that can be used instead of the larger football stadiums. And if you include college football stadiums we have an over abundance.

[@joelcoelho5841]

It is obvious that this tournament will never reach the level of the Champions League for the simple reason that there is no space for it on the calendar.

[@akunwanneprosper7016]

There was intercontinental cup before already That was the former name of CWC

[@PassivesAbseits]

This might actually hurt Fifa, because players will probably reitre much earlier from the international competition. It wouldn't surprise me, if the next Kevin de Bruyne reitres from the national team at age 27/28, because his body just can't take it anymore. Addidtional injuries will delute their golden cow even further...

[@AkashS97]

Watching football since 2012 but never watched club world cup!!! Wonder why?

[@albertwong1182]

Part of me hopes the players go on strike since FIFA refuses to listen. FIFA seems more concerned about quantity over quality these days.

[@Kolo-rs8bg]

It’s like saying.Why we need Finalissima ,when we have world cup🤦‍♂️

[@k-matsu]

I dont think the Club World Cup will even happen. The market is already oversaturated and no streamer wants to pay for the rights until its been proven that people will watch. The qualification is a joke as well. Urawa Reds are somehow "locked in" as an AFC representative, but the last time they won the league was 2006, and they are likely to finish below midtable this season. Since Japan has a REAL financial fair play system, theres no way they can improve their quality in just over a year. Why have the tenth best team in JAPAN representing "the best of all Asia?"

[@made13145]

Y'know, as Barca fans I kinda glad we doesn't qualify for club world cup lmaoo.

[@Maverick_Jones45]

What you didn't mention is how big the gap is between European clubs and Other continents when it comes to football and how FIFA sounds so Hypocritical when they said that the new CWC will give the other continents a chance at winning the tournament while still giving UEFA the highest amount of slots which means that the last 4 remaining teams will literally Just be between 4 European teams cuz there is no way a team like Al Ahly or a team like Al Ain is gonna be able to compete against the likes of Real Madrid, PSG, Man City, etc (even if the European teams will play their B team) This competition Literally Just goes to highlight how much of a monopoly UEFA has over other continents when it comes to Football and its honestly a disgrace by FIFA

[@jordan_roadhouse4798]

Yeah but if they are better teams then why put an Al Ahly in the comp. That's just a participation trophy at that point by it's very nature.

[@mike04574]

Ye it’s unfortunate

[@clawy99]

you are missing the point that these teams will get huge financial bonuses from this tournament, compared to their usual budgets. Those clubs will benefit a lot, and so will global football as a whole due to them dripping down the money. And they will have a ton of fans from their continent watching them until they go out. Also I do believe Al Hilal will stack up enough to actually be competitive with a majority of the European clubs.

[@Maverick_Jones45]

@@clawy99 sure... they may benefit alot from the money but why does FIFA have to lie by saying that the new format is to give the other non European teams a chance at winning the Trophy while still giving UEFA the highest slots for teams that will compete.. doesn't that go against what they had already claimed?? Also I'm sorry but Saudi clubs cannot compete with Europe cuz the gap is soo huge.. Just bc they have money doesn't exactly mean that they are good on the pitch

[@maciejbala477]

meh. At least they do get a chance to compete, though. It's the same logic as if you said that Bulgarian or Hungarian teams will do nothing in European competitions. Maybe at some point they would have a nice run though.

[@avalisduvon6388]

What a mess. Football being controlled more and more by money is disappointing. As a fan of the sport since late 90's, I have tried to watch every tournaments there are, but it's increasingly difficult and getting less and less prestigious. I didn't even realize that the nations league is going on, I thought it's WC qualifier. Also from player's welfare is just bad. Fans are blaming players for getting injured all the time and with these scheduling no wonder players are getting injured ALL THE TIME. Fans are saying, "but it's their job! They are getting paid a lot of money to kick a ball around!". Well, there should be regulation/cap about how much a player salary should be. All these enormous money shouldn't be spent on football/footballers. The beautiful game is dying and at least I've enjoyed the time I spent watching them. RIP.

[@AKpilations]

Injuries galore

[@abody499]

6:13 - yeah that's the MLS. "Footballdatabase" rank the world's clubs and the first MLS team is ranked 242nd. It's a pretty weak argument to question the broadcast rights value of a tournament with the top teams by comparing it with an example of a league whose teams don't even come close to the top. And for more context, you can see Celtic ranked 49. They regularly win their national league, the broadcasting rights for which Sky Sports paid £160m for 5 years. So, I think you're doing well at $2.5b for the MLS.

[@okonalbert]

FIFA are very hypocritical, they should consult the organisers of the European Super League for professional advice on organising such a huge tournament.

[@DallasT1998]

"It's like having a mini-World Cup annually and the real World Cup every four years" I mean we have the Finalissima, which preceded the Confederations Cup before that, so in a way we are also kinda there...