The site of new FIFA offices in New York may seem particularly suitable. The previous residents of Trump Tower include one with a statement of declaration of his businesses a glorious triumph, regardless of the evidence of the contrary, and to proclaim victory before the end.
And it was thus, before the final of the Club World Cup and in the Trump Tower when, borrowing from the game book of its owner, Gianni Infantino said: “We can certainly say that this FIFA club World Cup was a huge huge and enormous success.”
Certainly? “The man who thinks he is God”, according to FifPro’s words, may have supported their caustic verdict when he and Donald Trump inserted in Chelsea’s victory celebrations in the final – to the great perplexity of the players. Infantino already had his name on the trophy, so maybe he can make such declarations.
But there are reasons to believe that, far from being a huge (huge, huge) success, it was an artistic failure. They could be seen in the deserted stands. Infantino had predicted that there would be “63 Super Bowls in a month”. The NFL would be in crisis if a super bowl attracted a crowd of only 3,412, as Ulsan did against Mamelodi Sundowns.
They were two of the smallest attractions, but Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Juventus all played in at least one match with more than 30,000 empty seats, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund one with nearly 50,000 and Atletico Madrid one with more than 60,000. Inter Milan, finalist of the Champions League, had a direct equality full quarter; As they have lost, they can be grateful, their disappearance was observed by 54,837 unoccupied seats.
FIFA has extremely overestimated the will of the American public to pay premium prices to look at anything. In a dynamic price world, tickets sold for hundreds of dollars have been reduced to a handful in order to persuade anyone to come.
FIFA has had the choice of premises horribly. Time to kick off too. Players such as Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fernandez said the heat was dangerous and harmed the quality of the matches. Some seem to call on a European television market; Who, in many cases, has ignored them anyway.
FIFA said the club World Cup had been monitored by three billion people. Cumulatively? At the same time? Choose a large number, repeat it enough and some people may believe it, but the chances are that complete data – for each country, for each game – will never be published. Visualization figures can be camouflaged or selected in the icing, but it is sure to assume that the club World Cup probably did not attract the public or earn money that FIFA wanted.
It did not dominate the sporting summer. There was a apathy among certain leading radiudiffusers when Infantino implored them to take the rights of broadcasting; There was a similar indifference among some of the football audiences who would normally want to miss a major tournament. But then, of course, there was the question of whether it was actually a major tournament.
The only group of people who could not sit were the overworked players, their well-being ignored by the director body who avoided his responsibility to monitor their interests by rather prioritizing their own greed. FIFPRO, not invited to the infantino meeting on the workloads of the players, compared it to Rome de Nero; Players risked burning in the “unacceptable conditions” of temperatures at 100 degrees. The weather delays meant that the manager who won the tournament, Enzo Maresca, described him as “joke” after the Chelsea match against Benfica finished four hours and 38 minutes after the start. The club World Cup was still on, and yet sometimes not on.
It is a sure supposition that there will be a training effect at some point next year for those who were there. There is already for Bayern Munich. You can say that Jamal Musiala could have been injured in a friendly friend or training. But the fact is that it was not; He was injured during the Club World Cup.
In due time, others could be injured because of this, because players cannot have an appropriate break. Maresca marked the victory in the final saying that it was more excited to be three weeks than to lift the trophy. The Club World Cup was part of last season, next season and pre-season at the same time. It was so false that it even made Sepp Blatter was properly; He said there was too much football.
This is the tournament that alienated people with a love love of the game. “The club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football,” said Jurgen Klopp. The FIFA employee, Arsene Wenger, did not agree. But many complementary comments have come from those of the pay, football legends on various junkets, empty influencers there for no obvious reason, club employees have forced to participate. Those who were not missed there were price millions and a chance to build their brand. But, in a sporting sense, they may not have too many regrets about the lack.
Klopp, of course, would not have described the real World Cup as disdainfully. And it is true that not everyone was convinced that in 1930. However, if ideas can take the time to generate a wave of support, there is a problem when imposed from above, since diktats are a spectacular success. “The golden era of world club football has started,” said Infantino.
Really? The best case to support this argument lies in the progress and prowess of Brazilian clubs and the size of their support; There was certainly more appetite in South America than Europe for the Club World Cup.
And, inevitably, part of real football was good because, well, football is good. A large part was highly lacling, but there was the shock victory of Al-Hilal over City, the injury time between Real Madrid and Dortmund, the demolition jobs of the PSG of the two halves of Madrid, the turn of Cole Palmer’s star in the final. There was a shock to the last while PSG lost.
But as a whole, it was not as convincing as the Champions League. This has remained the ultimate price of PSG, the club World Cup proving the anticlimatic post-scriptum of their European glory. It was over-shown reflection afterwards. There is no doubt that, although Chelsea has the title, PSG is the best team in the world. Which was sort of appropriate for a tournament that was not up to the grandiose invoicing of its creator.
“What was presented as a world celebration of football was nothing more than a fiction created by FIFA, promoted by its president, without dialogue, sensitivity and respect for those who support the game with their daily efforts,” said FifPro. In the logic of Infantino, someone else’s fiction is their fact. A huge huge and huge success? Only in the world of Infantino.
