From Palmer and domes to Musiala and turf: Club World Cup winners and losers | Club World Cup 2025

Winners

FIFA: The director of the world had hoped to take more foot in the club game with the extended version of this tournament. Now that it has taken place without major disruption or mass protest, it is likely that it will not disappear so soon. In many ways, this alone is accomplished by Mission – FIFA now manages a property which will allow it to control the global profile of some of the largest football properties in the world, which were mainly out of its reach. There are also a lot of positive scenarios that FIFA can choose to boast (more than 2.4 million cumulative attendance and a certain number of protruding facts on the ground), even if some of them are balanced by less flattering realities (more than 1.5 million empty seats).

UEFA: For all the speeches at the start of the tournament in the way the South American teams came to play and gave UEFA the big names a race for their money, the end result confirmed what the world of football already knew: the best teams play in Europe. In 35 games against the opposition not UNEFA at the club World Cup, UEFA teams won 23, made seven and lost five. UEFA teams have received more than $ 340 million (253 million pounds sterling) of performance -related price, or more than 70% of the total available.

Cole Palmer: The English international was electric in the final against Paris Saint-Germain, marking twice and helping a third while Chelsea fled as a surprise winners. Palmer has resumed shirt no 10 for Chelsea this season and it seems that the pressure that the number tends to give to his wearer was an advantage for him, rather than an obstacle. His performance in the final followed solid projections in the group phase and knockouts, in which he played a variety of roles behind the attacker. Chelsea hopes that he will resume his great shape in the United States in the next Premier League season, rather than reproducing the pedestrian projections that marked much of last season.

Roofs, domes and the Pacific Northwest: Heat and time delays were among a few hiccups that disturbed the parts of this tournament, except in the places where they were made out of words. The dome-shaped places, such as the Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta, were fresh and comfortable even in the middle of a heat wave in the middle of the tournament. The Lumen Field of Seattle, which welcomed six games, was naturally comfortable thanks to its location and the climate in this part of the country. Even Pasadena’s pink Bowl, which experienced a high heating game among the worst of them, was mostly tempered most of the time, with an average temperature of 80F / 26C and not too much humidity. FIFA president Gianni Infantino admitted to journalists from the final that Heat was a problem during this tournament, and that he would solve by playing games under covered stadiums during the next year World Cup. It seemed to suggest that more diurnal games would be played in one of the interior or covered stadiums, but it is not yet known how FIFA would accomplish this since the calendar was determined (although the launch times have not done so).

Losers

Most of the players involved: FifPro, the World Union of Professional Football Players, said on several occasions that the time of the Club World Cup could harm players. Given the ever -increasing number of matches in an exhausting club season, the tournament has always had the potential for unnecessary injuries – never more real than in the case of Jamal Musiala du Bayern, who suffered a broken and dislocated ankle in a collision with the PSG goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, who will hold him during the majority of the following year. The temperatures were hot, the intense games and the players involved,, Apart from those who came to the tournament in mid-season, the weeks will have weeks less than usual for rest and recovery before returning to pre-season training. The long -term effects of the Club World Cup may not be fully known before the next season, but it is unlikely to be good.

PSG: The Luis Enrique team stormed the tournament, looking at the whole team that demolished Inter 5-0 in the Champions League final. They were the favorites on the side to win in the final after having crossed Real Madrid, which would have left no doubt about who is the best team in the world (whatever the main part of this). Instead, PSG is left to undoubtedly treat the worst possible result: the maximum time spent extending the season, the least rest before the next season and a meager $ 88 million (at least) for their troubles. These earnings have nothing to sneeze in the void and could be an aid for financial show regulations, but the figure does not represent a significant addition to the chests of the owner QSI, which has a net value in the hundreds of billions.

Any confederation other than UEFA and CONMEBOL: If you were a team from anywhere in the world outside the two club power centers, there is a good chance that you had a bad time at the Club World Cup. Asian, African, Oceanian and North and North American and North American teams combined to win 12% of their matches on average, with only three of them going to direct elimination. Make no mistake, there were fantastic moments such as the great victory of Al-Hilal over Manchester City in the last 16. But overall, the other confederations hope that the next four years will cause a drastic rebalancing of the club game.

The lawn: In several sites, including Metlife Stadium where the final was organized, the artificial lawn was bunk by SOD for the Club World Cup. The resulting surface was certainly better than the artificial lawn, but it has always aroused the complaints of players and coaches. (Said Reece James de Chelsea de Metlife: “The place is in the lead. The locations are not so good. I hope there are changes for the World Cup next year.”) In the final, the FIFA extended the cooling of the breaks at five minutes and brought out the clerks to water the grass at that time, which, according to a spokesperson, was in response to the complaints of the surface, Dry under the sun. Next year, the lawn of each site will have seven weeks to go to bed before it is used in the tournament. Many interested parties hope that the additional time will make a difference.