FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has defended this summer’s revamped Club World Cup, describing it as the most successful club tournament globally, despite criticism over player fatigue and extreme weather conditions.
The competition, hosted in the United States, has come under scrutiny for increasing the physical demands on elite players and being staged amid soaring temperatures, with venues like Metlife Stadium in New Jersey experiencing highs of 38°C ahead of Sunday’s final.
Nonetheless, Infantino, speaking at Trump Tower in New York on the eve of the highly anticipated showdown between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, praised the tournament’s impact and financial performance.
“The golden era of global club football has started,” he declared.
“We can say definitely that this Fifa Club World Cup has been a huge, huge, huge success. Of course, there are a lot of positives, some negatives.”
“We respect everyone’s opinion. It has been successful. We have had over 2.5 million in the stadium. That’s around 40,000 spectators per match – there is no league in the world with that number, except the Premier League which, of course, has home teams and these are neutral stadiums.”
Since taking over as FIFA president in 2016, Infantino has overseen a major expansion of the Club World Cup format.
This edition, featuring more teams and matches, has reportedly brought in over $2 billion (£1.5 billion) in revenue.
“We heard financially it would not work but I can say we generated over $2bn in revenues with this competition. We earned on average $33m per match.
There is no other cup competition in the world that comes close to $33m per match,” Infantino revealed.
“It is already the most successful club competition in the world with all different measurements.”
The final of the tournament will kick off at 20:00 BST on Sunday, with Chelsea and PSG vying for the prestigious title.