Do we really need a 32-team FIFA Club World Cup? And why are Inter Miami in it?
FIFA have ignored players' concerns over the amount of matches in a busy calendar and pushed ahead with the new Club World Cup as injuries pile up
The draw for next summer’s FIFA Club World Cup took place on Thursday night. The tournament will feature 32 teams, with eight groups of four, and will be played across four weeks between June 15th and July 13th.
Just like the World Cup and the Champions League, it has been expanded. Which means more football when professional players have been lining up to point out that there are already too many matches.
Back in July, Real Madrid and Spain defender Dani Carvajal said: “The Super Cup is coming, the Champions League has at least two more games, a World Cup with a month away from home… it is an unfeasible calendar. We can’t keep up the level by playing every three days.”
And he couldn’t. Having helped Madrid win the Champions League and impressed for Spain en route to Euro 2024 glory last summer, Carvajal barely had a break. In October, the right-back sustained a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, a ruptured external collateral ligament and a ruptured popliteus tendon in his right leg. He will be sidelined for a long time.
Carvajal’s Spain team-mate Rodri is also out for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, while Juventus have lost two defenders to ACL ruptures this season and top teams across Europe – including Madrid, City, Arsenal and Tottenham – have been missing a host of top players already in 2024-25.
“I don’t remember exactly the games I played, but I had a talk with the club and the coach because starting 57 or 59 games and playing in 60 or something is not healthy,” Rodri said in August.
“You can do it for one season, but when it’s two or three in a row, it can be worse for the team because your physicality can drop. So I have to watch out. We have already spoken that it cannot always be like this. But last year, on the other hand, I had the feeling that we were fighting for everything, and I had to push my body to the limit.” He did, and like Carvajal, was struck down with an ACL injury in late September.
In November, Carvajal’s Madrid team-mate Vinícius Júnior spoke of football’s “crazy calendar” when it was confirmed he would miss Los Blancos’ Champions League against Liverpool at Anfield through injury. But is anyone listening? Apparently not.
In June, FIFPRO Europe member unions submitted a legal claim against FIFA, challenging the legality of FIFA’s decisions to unilaterally set the international match calendar and, in particular, the decision to create and schedule the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.
But the tournament draw took place on Friday and in a summer with no World Cup, European Championship or Copa América, the world’s best players will be called upon to play club football instead.
Why are Inter Miami involved?
That includes Lionel Messi, who will be there with Inter Miami after FIFA president Gianni Infantino took the unusual step of inviting the Florida side to the party following the Herons’ 6-2 win over New England Revolution in October.
Inter Miami won the Supporters’ Shield, but not the MLS Cup, meaning the Herons are not national champions. But including Messi et al will help FIFA strike a lucrative television deal for a tournament which was unpopular in its previous format and was once decribed as “a mistake” by former FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Whatever FIFA may say, making money is clearly much more of a priority than the health of the players. How sad.
FIFA Club World Cup groups in full
Group A: Palmeiras, FC Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami
Group B: Paris St-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle Sounders
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica
Group D: Flamengo, Esperance Sportive de Tunisie, Chelsea, Club Leon
Group E: River Plate, Urawa Red Diamonds, Monterrey, Inter Milan
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg
No. Greed/a ridiculously overloaded schedule is hurting an entire generation of stars;
re; anyone from Manchester City from their treble winning side. Esp Rodri and KDB.
I'm afraid we've seen the last of their best.
Anywho Infantino is extremely greedy and is ruining the sport. We need less matches overall and a focus on bedding in academy talents on first team sides. Looking at you Barclaycard Premiership!!!!
No, we don’t, I am nostalgic with Intercontinental cup who was competitive till the end. European cup winners and Libertadores cup winners could compete equally. Boca Jrs could beat AC Milan and Real Madrid of Galacticos. Nothing was taken for granted. They literally ruined a comptetition who was working well, because of money. Since 2005 onwards, club level world cup became a farce!