FIFA President Gianni Infantino launched an ambitious proposal by organizing, for the first time, a 32-team Club World Cup, despite the resistance expressed by footballers, national leagues, and major European clubs. However, the initial assessment after the group stage does not provide strong arguments to persuade the detractors and skeptics of this format.
One of the main criticisms focuses on the burden on the top global figures, who in 2024 did not enjoy holidays due to the Euro Cup and Copa America, and next year will have the Men’s World Cup.
What is the balance of the first phase of the Club World Cup?
The total attendance during the group stage was 1,667,819 spectators, with an average of 34,746 fans per match, despite most of the games being played in NFL stadiums with a capacity for over 60,000 spectators.
The opening match of Group B between the European champion PSG and Atlético de Madrid, at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, recorded the highest attendance of the group stage with 80,619 people, followed by the 70,248 who attended the match between Real Madrid and Pachuca in Charlotte.
In fact, the Real Madrid team, one of the most famous worldwide, had the best average attendance in the first round, despite not facing any renowned rivals, with 65,825 fans in Miami, Philadelphia, and Charlotte.
The match with the least attendance was the one between Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa and Ulsan HD from South Korea, which only drew 3,412 people at the Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando.
One of the aspects that may have affected the local public’s interest in the tournament is that simultaneously, the Concacaf Gold Cup is being played in the United States, where the local team and Mexico are participating, and also, the Major League Soccer did not stop its competition.
Were there any surprises in the soccer tournament?
Of the 12 European teams that qualified for the tournament, 9 advanced to the second round, including PSG, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Juventus, and Bayern Munich. Atlético Madrid, Porto, and Red Bull Salzburg were eliminated.
The big surprise is the Portuguese team, displaced by Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, while the “Colchonero” team finished third in the group behind PSG and Botafogo (Champions League and Copa Libertadores champions, respectively).
In the case of the Austrians from Salzburg, they were ranked 18th in the European classification and only secured a spot in the World Cup because their name was drawn due to the restriction of two teams per federation, which prevented teams like Liverpool, Barcelona, Napoli, and AC Milan from participating.
Among the 16 teams that advanced to the round of 16, there are 9 from UEFA, 4 from CONMEBOL (all Brazilian), 2 from CONCACAF, and one from Asia (Al-Hilal, which was in Salzburg’s group).
The elimination of Boca and River’s Argentine teams is also not a surprise, as the xeneizes are in a football crisis and finished third in a group where Bayern Munich and Benfica qualified, while the “millonarios” were displaced by Inter Milan and Monterrey.
Too big differences
Unlike what happens in the World Cup of national teams, where countries without powerful teams like Croatia, Belgium, Morocco, and Uruguay can be very competitive, at the club level, the economic factor has proven to be fundamental and the differences were significant.
The biggest example was Auckland City from New Zealand, an amateur team with teachers, barbers, and hardware store workers who had to ask for permission at their jobs to go to the World Cup, and who were defeated 10-0 by Bayern Munich and 6-0 by Benfica. They only managed to draw against Boca Juniors due to the crisis of the Argentine team.
Others like the Korean Ulsan and the Moroccan Wydad were far from representing any problem for the higher-caliber teams, who even played at half throttle.
As a result, except for a few matches like River vs Inter, there was no excitement in the games of the last round that defined the teams qualifying for the round of 16.