Is this first edition of the new Club World Cup a success? Everyone will have their own opinion, but FIFA already has one. In Brazil, for example, broadcasters have been recording record audiences since the start of the competition. In the first weekend alone, 50 million viewers tuned in to TV Globo, while the match between South Africa's Sundowns and South Korea's Ulsan drew a million people. More generally, the competition is a hit in Latin America.
In France, the PSG - Atlético de Madrid match attracted an average of over 3.8 million viewers on TF1, a solid audience. There's no doubt that the Parisians' quarter-final against Bayern Munich, or even the possible semi-final against Kylian Mbappé's Real Madrid (if the Merengues qualify against Dortmund), will also be widely watched on DAZN. That said, not everyone cares about this competition, and many watch it more out of support than attachment. It has also attracted criticism from many football figures for months. Recently, Raphinha and Jürgen Klopp have spoken out.
A Club World Cup every two years
Their anger will certainly go unheard, since El Chiringuito has revealed information that is likely to cause a lot of ink to flow. According to the Spanish media, FIFA boss Gianni Infantino would now like to make the Club World Cup a biennial competition, with a meeting scheduled every two years, and no longer four as was previously planned (the next one is set for 2029, but its host is not yet known). This idea comes at a time of tensions with certain European leagues, and we will have to watch closely to see how the Swiss-Italian leader will follow up on this project.
According to El Chiringuito , his intention would be to strengthen FIFA's control over the international calendar. This would challenge the hegemony of UEFA, whose Champions League represents the major football event each year. Especially since the organization of the next editions in strategic locations such as Qatar, Morocco or Brazil, recently mentioned, would add a geopolitical and financial dimension to this controversial project. But there is no doubt: the players' unions should make their voices heard, while the infernal pace of the calendars has never been so much the subject of debate.
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