FootBiz newsletter #178: FIFA eye 48-team Club World Cup after EFC deal
Plus: Michele Kang buys Lyon for €100m, an ~80% haircut on what Textor paid
As anyone who has ever had a medical bill Stateside can attest, “everything is bigger in America”.
And FIFA, high on their own supply in the midst of a 48-team World Cup, are so enamoured by that pursuit of growth that they’re going to expand the next edition of the Club World Cup to the same size.
It isn’t the greatest surprise, given that the obvious answer for every competition looking to increase revenues now is likely to be “let’s just make it bigger”.
In America this is already happening in the NFL (recently added 17th game, seeking an 18th), March Madness (expanding for the sake of it) and the NBA, which is looking to add a whole new league, so it’s something of a tried and tested method.
Whether there is a country that will be capable of hosting a 48-team Club World Cup is a different question entirely, you would guess?
(Out of interest: Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Qatar and the 2030 World Cup co-hosts Spain, Portugal and Morocco have all formally expressed their interest in hosting the competition. While unconfirmed reports have also suggested England, Germany and that FIFA may simply award it to the USA again.)
The Club World Cup struggled to attract the same crowds as this summer’s tournament
Broken by The Guardian, news of the expansion comes with the not-insignificant detail that FIFA has agreed to a joint venture with EFC, the lobby group for the world’s richest clubs. Having done so to great effect with UEFA, it’s a good move for EFC (formerly known as the ECA) as it secures them a seat at the table in organising what is now the world’s most lucrative club competition.
Europe provided 12 of the 32 clubs at last summer’s CWC, the first edition since it was expanded.
Each league was restricted to just two entrants, however, which meant plenty of rich and powerful clubs — the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan and Barcelona — being left on the outside looking in as their rivals picked up huge prize money Stateside. Winners Chelsea made north of $100m for their four-week participation.
It would also help FIFA attract eyeballs to the tournament at a time when they are trying to establish it in the global calendar, consequently helping them sell a TV deal. Ahead of last summer’s first-ever 32-team event, FIFA president Gianni Infantino was forced to call an emergency summit with broadcasters as they struggled for bidders.
The Club World Cup’s new format launched with a brand new trophy
DAZN eventually stepped in with a $1bn global deal. In semi-related news Saudi investment firm SURJ invested the same amount in the company just three months earlier.
(In further semi-related news, Saudi Arabia had been handed the 2034 World Cup unopposed shortly before)
So while the last round of group games we’re currently piling through at the World Cup have exposed the flaws of a 48-team competition — or, at the very least, this unprompted switch from goal difference to head-to-head as a tiebreaker — it’s abundantly clear that it’s just something we’re going to have to get used to.
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