The Club World Cup continues to be talked about. The competition, which is scheduled to take place from June 15 to July 13, is struggling to come to fruition. Less than a year before the kick-off, the project is still colossal.
What if this summer’s Club World Cup was finally… cancelled? The idea is still far from circulating in the offices of FIFA, but according to the Gazzetta dello Sport, the situation surrounding the organisation of the competition is worrying. In reality, few things have been finalised. The dates are set, between 15 June and 13 July. The host country? It will be the United States. There is talk of 32 teams present, but only 30 are currently known.
For the rest… nothing is ready. Can we therefore speak of a possible industrial catastrophe?
Money? What money?
The Italian newspaper claims that many questions remain unanswered. The stadiums, for example, have not yet been announced. Some cities are ready to come forward, but they are timid. Worse still, no sponsor, no television channel has yet shown interest in the tournament. Only Apple has tried to buy rights for a billion euros. La Repubblica reports that the initial offer has been cancelled and that negotiations are struggling to resume.
Except that, without a broadcaster, no brand will show up, since they have no idea of the real possible exposure. Markets have already closed and no rights have been sold there, in Asia, the Middle East or even North Africa. The teams themselves are worried about not knowing, 9 months before kick-off, where they will have to play. The expected revenues, amounting to 4 billion euros, are far from being reached, quite the opposite. 2 billion euros were supposed to be used for the organization alone and this figure has not yet been reached.
As we know, major European clubs have already protested against this competition, in England and Spain, denouncing an overload of the calendar. The Italian newspaper now claims that some teams will refuse to play if the total prize money of 800 million euros is not guaranteed. Which is far from being the case. FIFA, for its part, has started to accelerate to try to find solutions to save the 2025 edition, which would clearly be threatened.
Worse: if the idea of a cancellation is not yet taken seriously, it is already whispered that FIFA would use such a scenario as a gesture towards the players, justifying this by its wish to lighten the world football calendar.
FIFA Club World Cup
