The idea of a Club World Cup is good; club football is much better than the national team football that suffers from excessive nationalism, while seeing how clubs across continents do against one another at the highest level has been something we have been waiting for, and which has been refreshing. Besides Bayern Munich’s 10-0 thrashing of Auckland, the level has been quite high and European sides have not been able to dominate as expected, and last night Europe’s best side, Paris St. Germain, lost 0-1 to Brazil’s Botafogo in yet another upset for European arrogance.
All this said, the tournament also has problems: the opaque qualification process and playing times to fit TV viewing, but not the health of the players, who are playing in excessively hot weather (also, coming at the end of the season for many teams, the players arrive tired at the tournament). Also, we see the tournament take place in a non-footballing country where stadiums have been only half-full for many matches, and only many of the Latin American fans create anything that feel like a passionate atmosphere.
All this said the tournament appears here to stay, and I hope that FIFA will think about this tournament not only as a money machine, but also as a new scenario to get the best clubs to face one another.
I hope.
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