FIFA Club World Cup casting some doubts over European dominance
Heimo Schirgi’s first major work in football was as a leader in UEFA operations, the largest and most influential of the six geographic confederations of the world game. Part of this work was to plan and manage the UEFA Champions League, the most important and influential club football competition in the world.
Thus, when Schergi moved into his current job as the FIFA FIFA operating head for the World Cup, he brought with him the knowledge that the Champions League, for all his prestige and gravity, also had a weakness: his field was limited to the 55 European football countries.
“You have all these club competitions on a confederation, a continental level, right?” He said. “But you don’t have it global. You have never had clubs in South America in competition with European clubs in a serious tournament with high issues.
“I am personally interested in the way other clubs in the world will get away with it. There is only one way to discover it. ”
This is the FIFA club World Cup, which started in the United States 10 days ago. And although the tournament has many faults, it has greatly contributed to responding to Schergi’s curiosity. Europe, it seems, is not so dominant after all.
Paris Saint-Germain, the reigning European champion, lost against Botafogo, currently eighth in the emblematic English club of Brazil, Chelsea, was beaten via Flamengo, another Brazilian team. Mexico Monterrey played Inter Milan, the Champions League finalist, in a draw. Real Madrid, the most decorated club in Europe, equaled Al Hilal, which finished second in the Saudi Pro League.
And the Spanish power of Atlético Madrid, which made the 16 final in the Champions League, did not even leave the group phase.
These results can still prove to be a little more than a tripping on the path of an entirely European Four Four. Or not. And this uncertainty, insists Schergi, which is why the club World Cup was created.
“Our sport is a sport where outsiders have a real chance, right?” He said. “It’s not just the game of money. We know that club football is at a very high level. ”
The real winners of the first 34 games of the tournament were Latin American teams: five of the six South American clubs entered on Monday, just like Monterrey in Mexico. And if there was a big loser, he was undoubtedly the Major League Soccer, who showed that he was not ready to play with the big boys.
Although the American League has marked history when Inter Miami beat Porto 2-1 in a group match, marking the first time that a MLS club beat a European team in a competition match, the other two league entries – Lafc and the Spenders of Seattle – combined for two goals and were excluded three times in their first five games, all defeats.
But if the first club World Cup turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, even convincing, there were some hiccups. The attendance was injured by several kicks in the week early and high admission prices, which forced FIFA to start essentially to give tickets. The announced average of 36,043 during the first 34 games was equaled by almost as many empty seats.
Only one match has sold; Six others attracted less than 14,100 fans.
Rodrigo Mora of Porto is trying to cool off after the FIFA World World Group match on Monday.
(Adam Hunger / Associated Press)
Time has also been difficult with several players complaining about heat and humidity. It was so bad in Cincinnati last Saturday, the replacements of Borussia Dortmund watched the first half on television in the locker room. And it will only get worse. Temperatures should exceed 100 degrees on Tuesday in New Jersey, where Porto plays Al Ahly, and an excessive heat warning was issued in Philadelphia, where Chelsea and Esperance de Tunis meet.
High temperatures from the 90s are also scheduled for Tuesday for Nashville, Tenn., And Charlotte, NC, where afternoon matches are planned. However, this will serve as alarm clock for the next summer World Cup, which will be played in similar conditions.
The most complex problem may face FIFA by trying to make the club World Cup an important quadrennial event, however, is the luminaire calendar. The World Cup will go from 64 to 104 games next summer. In recent years have seen tournaments such as the League of Nations added to the international calendar while club competitions, including the Champions League, the Europa League and the Club World Cup, have developed.
Others, like the League Cup, were created from whole fabric.
As a result, some players have played more than 70 games for the club and last year. The element calendar has become so crowded that the only place remains to accommodate a tournament of a month such that the club World Cup was the traditional break at the start of the summer between a European season and the next.
FifPro, the World Union representing football players, cited scientific research in its call for a compulsory break of four weeks each year. FIFA, the organizer of the club World Cup, replied by offering a 1 billion dollars price bag so that the teams play during this break.
“With the introduction of the new format of the Champions League and the new club World Cup, which has been extending for more than a month, the workload on teams and players has increased considerably,” said Giuseppe Marotta, president and chief executive officer of Inter Milan. “However, these competitions also represent a huge opportunity in terms of visibility and income. For these reasons, they must be saved.
“Adjustments must rather be made to the rest of the calendar to lighten the overall load.”
Marotta suggests shortening the league schedules, which means reducing domestic competitions while giving more power to FIFA and UEFA. It could be a slippery slope, which would make the world game less local and more global.
But if the club World Cup follows the trajectory of the Champions League, Schergi thinks that it is a business that deserves to be done.
“The beginnings of the Champions League was not always this huge and big event,” he said. “There is a lot of growth that must occur and a lot of education. We are super excited that we are part of the story. ”
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