Was the inaugural Club World Cup a success? That would probably depend on your measure of such things. Financially speaking, it was a triumph for the clubs involved – Chelsea, the winners in 2025, pocketed a cool £84 million for their troubles. It was a nice little earner for FIFA too, of course, with the sale of TV rights to DAZN, who – scarcely believably – bid $1 billion (£780 million) for an exclusivity deal, which allowed the broadcaster to ‘sub licence’ coverage to television networks around the world.
Alas, that proved a tough sell in the UK, at least – Channel 5 picked up the rights from DAZN and got lucky with Chelsea reaching the final; that earned them an audience of 2.3 million, which was around one million fewer than an episode of Our Yorkshire Farm. But try telling Gianni Infantino that the Club World Cup is less popular than tales of farming in the Yorkshire countryside….
There was certainly apathy in the United States, where the tournament was hosted. One group game between Ulsan Hyundai and Mamelodi Sundowns drew a crowd of 3,412 – roughly the same as Hartlepool United’s August 2025 clash with Woking in the National League.
So, everyone wins… except the players, perhaps. They have, collectively, complained of fatigue amidst football’s great overscheduling of the modern era; particularly for those at the elite level, who are now comfortably playing 50-60 games a season for club and country. What they could do with is a nice summer holiday to relax aching bones and get away from football for a bit. Well, good luck with that, lads…
FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP WINNERS!!! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/KnbFOjfqzg
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 13, 2025
Biennial Man
FIFA chief, Infantino, can be accused of many things – and has been, routinely, but one thing he isn’t is a yes man. Because everyone inside football will tell him that having the Club World Cup every two years would be a disaster for the health and wellbeing of the players. But the Swiss couldn’t give a monkeys… with reports suggesting that he plans to turn his brainchild into a biennial event.
In Infantino’s mind, the Club World Cup would take place in odd-numbered years, with the international World Cup and continental tournaments, such as the European Championship, retaining their place in the summer of even-numbered years. It has already been confirmed that the Club World Cup will return in 2029, with rumours suggesting that Spain, Portugal and Morocco will be allowed to share hosting duties as a rehearsal for the international World Cup a year later.
There are no plans for an edition in 2027, as FIFA doesn’t have the power to abolish the international match schedule that has already been put in place, but the feeling is that the governing body will build a case for a biennial Club World Cup from 2031 onwards.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some clubs are pleased by the prospect of a biennial Club World Cup – the main cast, again no eyebrows raised, being some of those that were behind the doomed European Super League just a few years ago. Real Madrid and Barcelona, for instance, have been reported as two of the clubs happy to go ahead with the tournament every other year… any chance to grab a few quid always welcome there.
The Expansion Game
FIFA themselves implemented a cap on how many teams could qualify for the Club World Cup from a single country – two, unless another wins a continental competition. The problem with that, from a commercial standpoint, is that it means some of the most beloved clubs in football have the door closed on them – the Premier League and La Liga in particular could easily provide four or more big-time teams.
Expanding Teams to 48
One way to get around that? Expand the Club World Cup from 32 teams to 48… the next item on FIFA’s to do list. After all, the governing body will expand the international World Cup to 48 teams for 2026… this appetite for expansion likely to bleed into other tournaments under their jurisdiction, too. More teams means more games, of course, which will no doubt go down like a lead balloon with many clubs and players… although not those that stand to benefit the most financially, of course.
FIFA’s Legal Battle
Fifpro and World Leagues have already joined forces to launch a legal battle with FIFA. They have called for the governing body to be sanctioned for an ‘abuse of dominance’, a case which will centre around FIFA’s continued expansion of tournaments and the scheduling of the Club World Cup without the input of player representation.
One manoeuvre that could ease FIFA’s scheduling woes would be to clear space in football’s diary, but that would likely put them on a collision course with UEFA, with whom relations have already soured in recent years. FIFA would love the UEFA Nations League to be abolished, and you suspect that many players and managers would too – it’s an unnecessary convenience that brings little, if any, joy to those that succeed in it.
Player Burnout
That would reduce the schedule to some extent, but elite players still have to meet the demands of expanded continental and international competitions – more, more, more scream everybody but the 22 individuals out on the pitch. Fifpro joined forces with 70 different medical and health professionals to produce a report damning the current state of the football calendar, and called for mandatory rest periods before, during and after the season has ended. FIFpro’s Darren Burgess stated:
The results of this study show that there are certain minimum standards such as adequate rest between matches, and proper off-season breaks, that are common sense, aligned with scientific evidence and, above all, required by global occupational health and safety standards.
The likes of Rodri and Harry Kane have spoken of burnout, with the Spaniard suffering a serious knee injury in 2024 – something he directly attributes to his club and country schedule. It will be interesting if a player does suffer a career-threatening injury at the Club World Cup. Would they or their clubs sue FIFA? Would the courts agree that burnout is a considerable problem in the modern game? And, perhaps most pertinently, would FIFA give a hoot either way?
