FIFA Club World Cup becomes a truly global feast of football

While World Cup tournaments capture the imagination of a global audience on a rolling four-year cycle, domestic football has lacked an event that boasts the same kind of mass appeal.

South America has the Copa Libertadores, Asia the AFC Champions League and Europe the UEFA Champions League, but continental borders provide limited opportunities to be considered the best side on the planet.

That is about to change thanks to a serious shake-up by the governing bodies at FIFA.

Intrigue

There will still be a mix of sporting Davids looking to topple the Goliaths, but that only serves to heighten the sense of intrigue.

Any competition that includes the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City, who sit at +550 and +700 in Champions League winner odds for 2024-25, will prove tricky for those punching above their weight.

European heavyweights dominated the old Club World Cup format and there is every reason to believe that sides figuring prominently in Champions League predictions will continue to stake the strongest of claims to a prize that only a select few get the chance to challenge for.

The competition is, however, no longer a two-horse race – or four at best.

In 2025, for the first time on American soil, 32 teams will compete for the FIFA Club World Cup trophy.

There will be no more early eliminators that barely register on the football calendar, with every fixture taking on greater meaning.

Of course, there will be also-rans, those that are there to make up the numbers, but the same can be said for the international World Cup and nobody considers that event to have been watered down as part of a box-ticking exercise.

FIFA believe that positive steps are being taken, with the organization's president saying: “It's about inclusivity, it's about bringing clubs from all over the world, the 32 best clubs and best players from all over the world, to determine which one is truly the best in the world.”

He admits that a battle that brings together teams from every corner of the globe had been “missing for club football”, with the intention being to start righting those wrongs.

Questions will be asked of whether an expanded format, bringing more games to already packed schedules, is in the best interests of the players and coaches involved.

FIFA, though, are in the entertainment business and have the appetite of insatiable sporting diners to satisfy.

Menu

In throwing open doors to what had become something of a closed-doors eatery, they are allowing players and spectators from Estonia to Ecuador, Lithuania to Lebanon to pull up a seat at the very top table.

Will the new-look Club World Cup be to everybody’s taste? Probably not.

Is it set to become a staple part of the global football menu? Most definitely.

Critics are going to have to get used to the new diet, whether they like it or not, and the production of a truly global football feast is never something that collective noses should be turned up at.