The FIFA Club World Cup kicks off on December 6th with Al Jazira, national champions of the United Arab Emirates where this year’s tournament is being held, taking on Auckland City.
It’s hardly a glamour tie; Al Jazira didn’t even get out of the group stages of the Asian Champions’ League this season, and Auckland City isn’t even the best team in New Zealand. But to disparage the whole tournament based on its opening fixture would be doing it a disservice.
Soccer fans who don’t closely follow the tournament assume that, like its predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup between Europe and South America, the FIFA Club World Cup is a straight-up battle between the European champions and South American champions, and that the other continents are invited along simply to make up the numbers. But in the six tournaments since 2010, two African teams, Congolese side TP Mazembe and Morocco’s Raja Casablanca, have reached the final, and last year Japanese hosts Kashima Antlers not only made the final but took Real Madrid to extra time before eventually succumbing by four goals to two. These achievements come despite the tournament’s structure favoring Europe and South America, whose teams both get byes to the semi-finals.
This year, Asian champions Urawa Red Diamonds would love to go one step further. They overturned first leg defeats twice and then got past a Shanghai SIPG side featuring Brazilians Oscar and Hulk en route to the Asian Champions’ League final. African champions Wydad Casablanca would also love to earn local bragging rights by topping the achievements of local rivals Raja Casablanca in 2013 and actually lifting the Club World Cup. They’ll first have to get past Mexican side Pachuca, who are flying the flag for North America, before facing Brazilian side Gremio, who beat Argentina’s Lanus last week to win the Copa Libertadores.
Each of these teams had a fascinating journey to the UAE, but those stories will likely be ignored by reporters focusing on European champions Real Madrid.
When FIFA announced that they would expand the Club World Cup to 24 teams, it seemed at first like clubs from the rest of the world was being given the opportunity to improve and show what they could do on the global stage. To have their stories told to the world like Iceland and Egypt have after qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. But a recent report in Marca, the Spanish sports newspaper, suggests otherwise.
According to Marca, out of the 24 places up for grabs in FIFA’s revamped Club World Cup, 12 will be reserved for Europe. Such a move might make sense financially, but it goes completely against FIFA’s remit of trying to grow soccer around the globe. The Club World Cup would become, in essence, a glorified European Super Cup. Africa, Asia, and North America would only get two slots under the proposals mentioned in the report, stunting the growing club leagues in these regions, and maintaining the status quo of fans around the world watching Real Madrid and Manchester United instead of following their local teams.
As the expanded Club World Cup is to take place every four years, giving only two places to a continent would mean that some of these continents’ champions wouldn’t have a chance to compete in the Club World Cup. Surely giving each continent (with the exception of Oceania) at least four spots would be a fairer way of divvying up the 24 places in the revamped tournament. Hopefully FIFA will consider the interests of these continents before making any final decision.
European teams might have won every Club World Cup since 2012, when Brazilian side Corinthians beat Chelsea, but clubs from the rest of the world have proved competitive. They are already disadvantaged by the money flowing into the top clubs in Europe. They shouldn’t be further disadvantaged by FIFA.
Real Madrid are heavy favorites for this year's Club World Cup, but there are six other teams in the competition, maybe one of them can cause an upset and lift the trophy on December 16th.
