The revamped Club World Cup “most successful club competition in the world” has been declared by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, while receiving thrice the negative feedback from players, coaches, and fans.
The final of the 32-team showpiece on Sunday is Chelsea vs. Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium. The new format has been subjected to a lot of scrutiny with us/views from Jurgen Klopp calling it the “worst idea ever implemented” and players like Jude Bellingham and Enzo Fernandez giving extreme weather as their excuse, but Infantino is still of the opinion that the event has been a success.
From Trump Tower, Infantino said the event brought in more than $2 billion dollars and the total number of spectators at all the matches was 2.5 million, which is equivalent to 40,000 people per game. “There is no league in the world with that number except the Premier League,” he concluded. “And these are neutral venues.”
Infantino, however, was not worried about the BBC report, which states that there are over one million empty seats at the stadium: “Financially, it worked. We earned $33 million per match. No other cup competition comes close.”
He said that the competition is the new beginning of a “golden era for global club football” and that future editions would continue to prosper this success.
