Pep Guardiola didn’t really seem convinced by Fifa’s demands for the new Club World Cup. The Manchester City coach does not intend to have his team compositions dictated to him by the international body in the name of spectacle.
In an already very busy football season for clubs and players, Fifa has decided to launch an overhaul of the Club World Cup. From the summer of 2025, a new four-year competition will see the light of day with the 32 best teams in the world during a month-long tournament.
For the occasion, and in order to help clubs prepare, the body chaired by Gianni Infantino has even planned to open a new window for transfers just before this Club World Cup. In return, international football leaders hope to see the participants play the game and send the best possible teams. A requirement that Pep Guardiola did not really appreciate while like PSG, his Manchester City is qualified.
“What are the best players? Who are they? Let FIFA tell me who, according to them, are the players better than the others,” said the Skyblues coach this Friday at a press conference. “I don’t understand that. We’re going to go there with the whole team, we’re not just going there for one match.”
“How can someone tell me that someone is better than someone else”
Despite a large workforce both in quality and quantity, Pep Guardiola does not seem to want to accede to all of Fifa’s requests. Let it be said, there is only one coach at Manchester City and it’s him. The Catalan technician then justified his position by recalling that the best player of the moment is perhaps not the same as in June 2025. Beyond the skill of the players, the form at the moment is essential for the former coach of Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
“I don’t yet know what the competition itself will be like but we’re not going to go there with 11 players, we’re going to go there with the whole team,” continued the coach of the current second in the Premier League. “But I don’t understand how anyone can tell me that someone is better than someone else. I know, but the best player is a question of form.”
Before concluding: “And maybe the best player for them is in a really, really bad condition. For lots of reasons: physical, personnel, injuries. They’re not going to show up before the matches and say which players will play. It’s me who will decide, that’s for sure.”
Jean-Guy Lebreton Journalist RMC Sport
