Gianni Infantino, President of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has declared the new 32-team Club World Cup as “the most successful club competition in the world,” just before the grand finale between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Chelsea.
The revamped tournament, held under intense heat in the United States, had initially drawn criticism for increasing player workload and concerns over health and fan engagement.
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However, Infantino maintained that the event had exceeded expectations in terms of attendance and financial performance.
“The golden age of club football has started. We can definitely say this FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge success,” he told journalists from Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue, where FIFA recently inaugurated a new office.
“We heard that financially it would not work, that nobody is interested, but I can say we generated almost 2.1 billion dollars in revenues, for 63 matches,” he said.
“That makes an average of $33 million per match — no other club competition in the world comes close.“It is already the most successful club competition in the world.”
Despite vocal opposition from former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp—who described the competition as “the worst idea ever implemented in football”—Infantino rejected the notion that European sentiment was widely negative.
“We shouldn’t say that the opinion of Europe on this is very bad because it is not true,” he stated, alongside football legends such as Ronaldo Nazário.Infantino added that even clubs not qualified for the event expressed interest in future participation.
“Of course I would have liked to have Liverpool here, Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona, Tottenham, AC Milan, Napoli… but you have to qualify and there are different criteria.”
As for future editions, the FIFA boss declined to confirm whether the tournament would occur every two years or expand further but insisted that the format had ushered in a new era for global club football.
“We created something new, something which is here to stay, something which is changing the landscape of club football,” he concluded.
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