Club World Cup: The expansion of the competition highlights the gap in strength and weakness, and the market is cold and overturns the "wishful plan"

In a window period without large international events, holding a top event that includes 32 elite clubs on all continents around the world is a beautiful idea for FIFA. However, the 2025 Club World Cup group stage has passed halfway, and the popularity of the event has never been as high as expected. Above the stadium, teams in Asia, North America and other regions are still poorly ranked. In the case of a significant gap in strength, the strength of the teams between South America and Europe has been further magnified, and this gap in strength weakens the viewing of the game. In addition, fans are not currently paying for the Club World Cup, and some tickets have "dived". In the lack of giants, there are only a few thousand fans on the scene. "Ideals are full, and reality is skinny" is the first impression left by this competition on the world.

Asian teams are not competitive

"Double-man turn" is still the "main theme"

"The bonus distribution model of this year's Club World Cup reflects the peak level of club football, which is the largest prize pool in the history of the competition-based football competition." FIFA President Infantino once proudly evaluated the bonus system of the club cup in the future. After the event expanded to 32 teams, the total prize money of this Club World Cup reached US$1 billion. Comparison, the highest World Cup in the history of the World Cup was US$440 million, which shows the luxury of the Club World Cup.

However, the increase in bonus investment and the increase in the number of teams have not shown ideal results at present. Although the number of Club World Cup games has increased, due to the obvious gap in strength between participating teams, the value of many games is being reduced. What attracts the most attention from fans is the "double-man" between South American teams and European teams.

In the first round of group stage, Egyptian team Cairo Nationals shook hands with Miami International led by Messi 0:0 in the opening game. Since then, in the second game, Bayern Munich defeated Auckland City 10-0 in the first match of Group C. This team is the only Chinese player in the Club World Cup. Among the Asian teams, Urawa Red Diamonds was defeated 3-1 by Argentina's giant River Plate. They were eliminated early in the second game by Inter Milan. After the game, Urawa Red Diamonds 39-year-old goalkeeper Shusaki Nishikawa burst into tears. "This reflects the gap between us and the world's top teams. We must have the ability to make a final decision. This experience cannot be wasted this time." He said.

Ulsan Hyundai lost to South African team Mamelodi 0:1, sunset, while UAE giant Ain defeated Juventus 0:5 in the first match. The only thing that made the tone was Riyadh Crescent, coached by Inzaghi, who drew 1:1 with their opponents in the face with Real Madrid.

In contrast, the "civil war" between South American teams and European teams is more interesting. The new Champions League champion Paris Saint-Germain defeated Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the first round, but was defeated 1-0 by the Brazilian League team Botafogo in the second round. Chelsea, which beat Los Angeles FC 2:0 in the first round, also lost to Flamenco 1:3 in the second round. In the Club World Cup, South American teams are still the main force in competing with European giants. As the game deepens, such a competition will also become the main theme.

fans do not buy into the team and have complaints. The initiative is the new event in FIFA. It is destined to face various troubles at the beginning of the game. The key problem is how to solve it.

At present, the fan group is not very interested in this Club World Cup, and the group stage mainly relies on South American fans to support the field. Data shows that the average number of spectators in competitions participated by Brazilian and Argentina clubs exceeded 40,000, which is nearly 30% higher than the number of visitors to other competitions. At the same time, the number of individual games is much lower than expected. The most embarrassing data is: Ulsan Hyundai and Mamelodi Sunset team had only 3,412 fans at the game.

"Ticket prices are too expensive" and "poor sales" were once the focus of ticket sales before the start of the Club World Cup. Chelsea coach Maresca said: "I think the atmosphere on the scene is a bit strange, and the stadium seems empty." Perhaps, with the arrival of the knockout round, more fans will pour into the stadium, but the current non-payment orders obviously have significantly discounted the expected box office revenue of FIFA.

Fans who don't buy it can ignore the game, but the team can only choose to compromise. The intermission period between this Club World Cup and European teams was completely collided. If European teams reach the final, they will have little rest time throughout the summer, and the European League will begin soon after the Club World Cup ends. In addition, next summer, the 2026 US, Canada and Mexico World Cup will be held. Players of European and American giant teams will be exhausted from dealing with intensive schedules for two consecutive seasons. Premier League legend S admitted: "FIFA is letting players pay for their greed with health!"

In addition, the venue problem has also made many giants dissatisfied. Real Madrid specially dispatched personnel to conduct a detailed investigation on the situation of the game stadium. The final suggestion is that players such as Militon, Alaba, and Carvajal who have suffered cruciate ligament injuries should not participate in this Club World Cup event, and they did not enter the team's roster in the first game. Weather factors cannot be avoided. Many previous games have been delayed due to long-term delays due to thunderstorms. The threat of high temperatures in the future has arrived. Among them, the match between Bayern Munich and Benfica may be held at a high temperature of 41 degrees Celsius...

The initiative is obviously in the hands of FIFA. They have enough power and resources to win over teams with excellent enough. The next problem is to make the game truly valuable and make the Club World Cup a top event comparable to the World Cup.