Football | Trendy drug football – the Club World Cup experiment

Everything's running like clockwork: The first matchday of the 2025 Club World Cup is over, and the tournament in five US stadiums is delivering the colorful images everyone hoped for. Unlike the Champions League, the World Cup isn't a private European party, but a global pop-up: In New York, Tunisian and Brazilian fans besieged Times Square and let their battle chants ring out. In Miami, thousands of Boca Juniors supporters from Buenos Aires took over the beaches. They dubbed their event "Boca Beach" before continuing their applause through shopping malls and Walmarts.

That evening, 55,000 people at Hard Rock Stadium sang their praises to their favorites, hours before the game. The Argentine newspaper Clarín raved about the "return of the true fans." In Argentina, the match achieved TV ratings of 34 percent.

The stadiums are usually well filled

Mission accomplished: FIFA has created a new drug with which it hopes to send fans around the world into an unprecedented football frenzy every four years. So far, things have gone reasonably well at the new Club World Cup tournament with 32 teams from all over the world, which Swiss FIFA President Gianni Infantino created thanks to a billion dollar in funding from Saudi Arabia. When Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain defeated their European counterparts Atlético Madrid 4-0, 80,619 spectators filled the stands of Pasadena's Rose Bowl Stadium. The opening match in Miami, featuring Lionel Messi, also drew almost 61,000 spectators.

But there were also outliers: Only 3,412 spectators turned up for Ulsan Hyundai of South Korea's group match against South Africa's perennial champions Mamelodi Sundowns. By kickoff, not all fans had even arrived in their seats, which is why the US news agency AP initially reported only 1,000 spectators. The internet was full of derision: Imagine it's the Club World Cup and no one goes!

Europe complains, but the cash registers ring

The mockery was accompanied by criticism from Europe. Maheta Molango, head of the English Players' Association (PFA), criticized the professionals' "never-ending schedule" and called the project "an example of abuse of power" by FIFA.

In Cincinnati, Bayern fans protested Munich's 10-0 win over Auckland City of New Zealand with a banner demanding "Smash FIFA!" Jürgen Klopp, Red Bull Global CEO since January, called the Club World Cup "pointless" and lamented the strain on the players in particular: "The winners will be the poorest winners of all time because they will be working all summer long." Red Bull Salzburg, which is also taking part in the Club World Cup due to the twisted qualification system, has not given up its right to participate.

The complaints from Europe aren't just bouncing off the clubs' coffers, where Salzburg are booking $12.8 million, Borussia Dortmund $23 million, and Bayern Munich even $30 million in signing bonuses. The six clubs from South America are each receiving $15 million, and even Auckland City is getting $3.58 million. The winner could, in the best-case scenario, receive around $125 million. What club boss would say no to that?

Many players are also looking forward to the new tournament: Bayern captain Manuel Neuer pointed out how colleagues from renowned clubs would like to take part in the tournament, but are not qualified: "It hurts them."

For clubs from the south, the tournament is a stage

While Europe is right to complain about the "Arab-infantine invitational tournament" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), from a sporting perspective, it also presents an opportunity for clubs from the global South: When else can the South African champions present themselves to the world public like this? Who had ever heard of Al Ahly from Cairo or Wydad AC from Casablanca before this tournament? Where better for players from Esperance Tunis or the Urawa Red Diamonds from the Japanese prefecture of Saitama to increase their market value than in such a competition?

Even in terms of playing skills, the non-European teams have been able to keep up so far. After the first matchday, there were no convincing victories, apart from Bayern's 10-0 victory. The European teams certainly didn't dominate their Latin American opponents: Benfica Lisbon only managed a 2-2 draw against Boca Juniors from Buenos Aires, while Champions League finalists Inter Milan could only manage a 1-1 draw against Mexico's CF Monterrey. Even the Saudi team didn't go down without a trace on the first matchday: Al Hilal from Riyadh rallied to secure an astonishing 1-1 draw against Real Madrid.

The Club World Cup will remain

It doesn't take a prophet to predict that everyone will want to be there in the future, too, when a new owner is sought for the 24-carat gold-plated trophy every four years. The trophy on which the vain FIFA President Infantino has had his name immortalized twice. His FIFA is more successful than ever before.

Infantino has taken the edge off European football's governing body: Its Champions League is currently the most dazzling club football product in the world, but next to the new global tournament, it seems rather provincial. UEFA watches with gritted teeth as its flagship is being undermined. The explosion in prize money has elevated the FIFA tournament from virtually nothing to the heights of the Champions League.

From the quarterfinals onwards at the latest, the quality on the Club World Cup pitches will continue to rise. Tickets for the matches are likely to become scarcer, and even more people in Germany could be interested in the overseas tournament, especially if Bayern or Borussia Dortmund still play a role. Europe is mocking the Club World Cup, but complaining about full purses and overfilled schedules doesn't change anything. Latin America is swallowing FIFA's miracle pill, Africa and Asia are curiously trying it out, and North America is simply joining in. The drug of football is kicking – even in the summer of 2025.