FIFA's bold reimagining of the Club World Cup (CWC) culminated July 13, ushering in what the governing body hailed as "a golden era of club football."
The expanded 32-team format, along with sweeping technological and presentation changes, aimed to elevate the tournament's global appeal, fairness and influence. While the 2025 edition delivered significant successes, it also revealed persistent challenges that demand attention.
GLOBAL PARTICIPATION EXPANDS
The most radical change was the expansion from seven to 32 teams. Players from 81 countries and regions took the pitch, many experiencing FIFA's top-tier competition for the first time. This dismantled the previous barrier that limited participation mostly to continental champions, advancing FIFA's mission to "truly globalize football."
Smaller clubs responded with enthusiasm. Facing giants like Real Madrid and Manchester City enriched player resumes and sparked pride back home-fulfilling FIFA's core goal of showcasing diverse football cultures.
"It shows how big football is worldwide and how good some of these players are," said Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane. "I'm loving this tournament so far, and hopefully we can be here for a while."
Zhou Tong, the sole Chinese player representing New Zealand's semi-professional Auckland City, captured the spirit: "Football connects people, changes lives, opens eyes to the world. That's magic-like universal language."
Unlike elite clubs, most Auckland City players hold full-time jobs and play part time. Zhou works as a community coach focused on grassroots development. Their participation powerfully embodied FIFA's "Football Unites the World" campaign.
CALENDAR AND COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES
Criticism focused on increased player workload and injury risks. The CWC schedule fully overlapped with Europe's summer league breaks. With next summer's FIFA World Cup in North America, European players face back-to-back grueling seasons.
UEFA and others have long criticized FIFA's crowded calendar. Opponents argue players are overworked while domestic leagues face disruption. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reiterated: "Players are not machines." The International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO) escalated the issue by filing a complaint with the European Commission.
Another concern was the competitiveness gap. Heavy defeats, such as Auckland City's 10-0 loss to Bayern Munich and Al Ain's 6-0 defeat to Manchester City, highlighted the disparity. Teams from Asia, Africa and North America generally struggled, resulting in matches that lacked suspense and neutral appeal.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino acknowledged criticism from European clubs and fans, as well as concerns about heat, noting future use of roofed stadiums and cooling breaks.
"So maybe some criticize it a little bit, but it's something new. It's something special," Infantino said. "It's a real World Cup with the best teams and the best players."
He added: "The heat is an issue. Cooling breaks are very important, and we will see what we can do. But we have stadiums with roofs, and we will definitely use these during the day next year."
Infantino emphasized the tournament's value for underrepresented regions like Oceania: "Auckland City, to some extent, represents 99.9% of football players and fans – those of us who dream of being on that stage but may never get the chance. Suddenly, one of us gets to play against the best. It must be a place for everyone."
REFEREEING REVOLUTION
The tournament also served as a testing ground for technological innovation. A key rule change from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) debuted: goalkeepers holding the ball for more than eight seconds would concede a corner kick.
FIFA Referees Committee Chairman Pierluigi Collina reported widespread approval. "It was very successful. The tempo of the match improved, and we saw no time wasting by goalkeepers, as happened quite often before." Only two violations occurred, fulfilling the rule's preventative goal.
Referees wore head-mounted cameras to broadcast a first-person view, enhancing viewer engagement. Collina said the "ref cam" exceeded expectations and spurred interest in broader adoption.
Referees also announced VAR decisions on-field via microphone, while fans in stadiums viewed the same replays as officials, increasing transparency. Coaches used tablets for substitutions and real-time player data (e.g., distance covered, heart rate), reducing errors and supporting tactical decisions. Collectively, the innovations improved fairness and flow.
"The outcome of using the ref cam at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 went beyond our expectations," Collina said. "We've received great feedback – people ask, 'Why not in all matches?' and even more: 'Why not in all sports?'"
BILLION-DOLLAR GAMBLE
FIFA dramatically increased the prize pool from 16 million US dollars for seven teams in the previous edition to 1 billion dollars for 32 teams, surpassing the 440 million dollars awarded at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It became the richest prize pool in football.
Clubs earned money based on performance and commercial impact. Even bottom-ranked Auckland City received 4.6 million dollars – about seven times their 2024 total revenue.
Infantino dismissed skepticism over the tournament's financial viability: "We heard it wouldn't work financially, but we generated over 2 billion dollars in revenue from this competition. We earned an average of 33 million dollars per match. No other cup competition comes close."
"It is already the most successful club competition in the world by all different measurements," he added.
To maximize accessibility, FIFA struck a 1-billion-dollar global broadcast deal with streaming service DAZN, including free streams of all 63 matches in 32 languages.
New presentation features such as individual player walkouts and a mid-final halftime show added spectacle-but sparked backlash. The 24-minute halftime performance violated FIFA's 15-minute maximum break rule.
Attendance figures varied widely: four matches drew fewer than 10,000 fans, with the lowest being 3,412 for a Group F match between Ulsan HD and Mamelodi Sundowns. Sixteen matches exceeded 60,000 fans, with the highest attendance at 81,118 for the Chelsea vs. PSG final.
"We respect everyone's opinion," Infantino said. "But it has been successful. We had over 2.5 million spectators in the stadiums – around 40,000 per match. No league in the world reaches that number, except the Premier League."
MEDIA ZONE REFORMS
The revamped CWC mixed zone abandoned the traditional TV-first format. Instead, four interview pods were set up – two per team.
Clubs designated players to give interviews in their native language and in English. Written press were allowed to film and photograph, but videos could only be posted online one hour after the mixed zone closed and had to be removed within 48 hours.
Many journalists welcomed the guaranteed access. Marcio Dolzan of Brazil's Lance contrasted it with the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, where reporters waited two hours for Argentine players, who avoided interviews entirely.
Others were critical. "Having covered nine World Cups, this format is unfamiliar," said Antonio Carrasco of Venezuela's Meridiano TV. "It feels like mini press conferences. All journalists hear the same thing. There's no opportunity for exclusives or choice of whom to interview."
West Lamy of The Huffington Post pointed out logistical issues: At English-language pods, non-English-speaking journalists often interviewed players in their own language, undermining the pod's purpose.
FIFA provided translators, but they were often ineffective – journalists spoke over them or asked new questions before translations finished. Star players drew crowds, while others were overlooked. On-screen player data helped with question prep but didn't solve access inequities.
"But if this is a change FIFA has already decided on, we will adapt," Carrasco said.
- FIFA Club WC
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
