Club World Cup

Fans are always eager to watch more football. But many sins are committed in its name.

One of them will be the upcoming Club World Cup, an old demand of fans, but placed at a time of maximum fatigue for players, with an increasingly extensive and demanding schedule.

These first months of the season have already left many more injuries than the previous ones, even without experiencing this new competition that will extend for almost a month, thanks to a format similar to that of the World Cups, with 32 teams divided into eight groups.

It will come at the end of the season, in the months when footballers traditionally rest or take on national team commitments, but as this year there is no Copa America, World Cup or Euro Cup, FIFA came up with the idea of ​​placing this new competition.

With so much behind it, it was evident that it could not be played every year, as it should be, but every four, taking into account titles and points coefficients in that four-year span that can give the ticket to a team that is no longer in its best moment, for example.

The expansion with respect to the previous format was criticized by the global union of professional players (Fifpro), and several professional Leagues; but in the end, it will be played as planned since it was conceived for its premiere in 2021.

Brazil has four teams because different clubs won the most recent editions of the Copa Libertadores and the best Leagues in the world only have two, and Mexico is involved with three clubs, also taking into account its reigns in the Concacaf Champions League.

So far so good and within the rules, not so in the case of Inter Miami, which was invited directly by FIFA without having the necessary merits, except for having the Argentine striker Lionel Messi in its roster.

Obviously, this will give the World Cup cachet, but it leaves much to be desired in terms of cleanliness of the game.

The draw for the edition that will be played from June 15 to July 13, 2025 has already been made and Group B is the so-called Group of Death, with French Paris Saint Germain, Brazilian Botafogo and Spanish Atlético de Madrid, but in general in the others the two favorites to advance to the round of 16 are pretty clear.

Of course, there is one year left, and above all it remains to be seen what players each team will have. By that time, players will be thinking more about resting than continuing to run after a ball.

If traditional events such as the Euro Cup have already suffered enough in recent years due to the absence of injured stars, this World Cup should not be the exception, and especially as things are going so far.

Fans will always be happy with more football, and the usual ones with more money in their coffers. Football and health are the least important elements in this cake.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff