The Club World Cup continues to make headlines. The competition, which was to take place from June 15 to July 13, is struggling to come to fruition. Less than a year from the start, the project is still colossal.
What if this summer’s Club World Cup was ultimately… canceled? The idea is still far from circulating in the FIFA offices, but according to Gazzetta dello Sport, the situation around the organization of the competition is worrying. In reality, few things are completed. The dates are set, between June 15 and July 13. 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. However, can we speak of a possible industrial catastrophe?
Money? What money?
The Italian newspaper suggests that many questions are still unanswered. The stadiums, for example, have not yet been announced. Some cities are ready to come forward, but they are timid. Worse than that: no sponsor, no television channel has yet been interested in the tournament. Only Apple tried to buy rights to the tune of a billion euros. La Repubblica announces that the initial offer has been canceled and that negotiations are struggling to resume.
Except that, without a broadcaster, no brand will appear, 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, to the tune of 4 billion euros, are far from being achieved, on the contrary. 2 billion euros were supposed to be used just for the organization 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 suggests that certain teams will refuse to play if the total prize money of 800 million euros is not assured. 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 under threat.
Worse: if the idea of a cancellation is not yet taken seriously, it is already rumored that FIFA would use such a scenario as a gesture towards the players, justifying this by its wish to lighten the football calendar global.
FIFA Club World Cup
