The War for the Control of Football

on the 11th of February 2023 Real Madrid begrudgingly became the world champions in Morocco North Africa for most of the teams especially those from South America the FIFA Club World Cup is a rare chance to test their metal against the European Elite so during the tournament the fans from the global South come in their droves in Japan in 2012 over 25 000 Corinthian supporters arrived from Brazil many having quickly gathered the cash to travel by selling their cars even their fridges just a handful of Chelsea fans bothered to make the journey from London with their support swelled by the global popularity of the English Premier League and the local Japanese Chelsea supporters Club when flamengo reached the club World Cup in 2019 over 30 000 fans traveled whilst Liverpool mainly relied on their huge fan base already in the Middle East to give them support the recent incarnation of the tournament has always been an unloved Oddity in Europe seen as a distraction from the more important grind but politics has long been at the heart of the club World Cup and now it is again when Real Madrid claimed victory at the prince mulai at Dallas Stadium in Morocco it was one of the last times the tournament would look as it did in fact the club World Cup has become a new front in FIFA's war against UEFA and against the world's most lucrative football competition the UEFA Champions League in March 2018 in the Colombian capital Bogota Gianni Infantino president of FIFA stood to speak in front of the FIFA Council and made them an offer that he thought they could not refuse he'd been approached with a proposal that could change football forever a proposal for a revamped Club World Cup massively expanded to include the biggest European clubs now the deal had a lot of moving Parts as well as a 2014 Club World Cup there would be a Global International Tournament modeled on uefa's Nations league and most importantly rights to FIFA's vast and highly lucrative Archive of intellectual property videos photos computer games the works at the time the New York Times calculated that the club World Cup was likely worth no more than 100 million dollars in total and so the sum that was being offered and conveyed by Infantino came as a huge shock 25 billion dollars however there was a catch the deal was so commercially sensitive that a non-disclosure agreement was needed as a result Infantino couldn't tell the FIFA Council who was behind it he did though want the FIFA Council to vote it through anyway claiming that there was a deadline before the deal would be withdrawn now unsurprisingly this raised a lot of questions including over player welfare and an already congested calendar few of those questions were answered over the following months more details dripped out including information about the role of SoftBank the huge Japanese conglomerate and The Sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and the UAE but the ferocity of opposition including from UEFA and some of the top European clubs saw SoftBank pull out but that didn't stop Infantino next he turned to the U.S Investment Bank the rain Group which oversees the sale of European super clubs his aim was to raise the one billion dollars necessary to kick-start the tournament FIFA announced a much scaled down version with a Pilot 2014 tournament taking place in China in 2021 but the coronavirus pandemic and a clash with the rescheduled 2020 European championships and the Olympic Games saw the plan shelved indefinitely Europe's top clubs probably would have boycotted it anyway but the zombie tournament would not die at a press conference in Doha during the World Cup in December Infantino announced that the new club World Cup would begin in 2025 likely to be hosted in the U.S but this time as an even larger 32-team tournament the move blindsided Europe's Elite clubs the powerful European clubs Association which represents 220 European Club sides had already refused to back the move so why would Infantino back such a radical move well firstly Infantino believes that the power and wealth of football should be shared with the rest of the world but there are also other possible reasons European Club football is booming and increasingly Out Of Reach of global football's governing body the English Premier League was effectively spun off from the English FA when it was created private Equity firms are buying clubs but also buying whole leagues in 2021 CVC Capital Partners invested over 2 billion euros in Spain's La Liga there was also a failed attempt at a breakaway European Super League another direct competitor to uefa's Champions League which would have further complicated things even though it's believed that Infantino privately backed the move perhaps as it would have significantly weakened Alexander seferen and UEFA Infantino eventually came out against it late in the day and all the while FIFA is still recovering from the financial hit that it took after Decades of corruption scandals almost all of FIFA's Revenue comes from the men's World Cup Final every four years Qatar 2022 will bring in 7.5 billion dollars in Revenue 1 billion dollars above FIFA's projections which is perhaps why Infantino has pushed other ideas some successful some not he was successful in pushing through an expanded 48 team men's World Cup finals but his idea to host the tournament every two years less so both ideas would be hugely lucrative for FIFA and its member associations especially in Africa and Asia who want their teams to be invited and compete in more elite club and international competitions within the FIFA Congress of 211 membership associations Europe and South America are in the minority so both Infantino and Alexander seferen the UEFA president know that the idea of an expanded Club World Cup lives or dies with the participation of Europe's Elite clubs the idea in and of itself isn't a bad one with concerns over whether a 48 team World Cup in USA Canada and Mexico in 2026 will be too unwieldy a truly Global Club World Championship pitting a host of teams from Africa Europe the Americas and Beyond against each other one that has real Jeopardy could be a huge chore but much like the idea of the failed European Super League it could also come at the expense of the current Continental tournaments there are two visions of football ahead one based on uefa's already wildly successful model where European super clubs reign supreme or an untested global vision under FIFA whoever wins Severin or Infantino will do more than just have their say over a new tournament they could also Usher in a new world order for the global game if you like this video please consider subscribing to the channel the athletic is home to some of the world's best sports journalists including journalists dedicated to each Premier League team so every fan gets the coverage they deserve not just the big clubs and you can try it for free now for 30 days see the link in the description

Channel: Tifo Football

Views: 269,113

Keywords: tifo football, tifo football youtube, youtube tifo football, tifofootball, tifofootball youtube, Fifa, club world cup, real madrid, uefa, champions league, super league, liverpool, chelsea, gianni infantino, Alexander ceferin, fifa president, uefa president, money, money in football, Tifo Geo

Id: hmxSFoL7ueo

Length: 7min 30sec (450 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 13 2023