Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino have met several times since Trump returned to office© JUAN MABROMATA/AFP
Source: DW
“The golden era of global club football has started,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday. “We can say definitely this FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge, huge, huge success.”
It’s the kind of hyperbole favored by the owner of Trump Tower, where FIFA have recently rented an office. Donald Trump and Infantino have grown ever closer this year, ostensibly because of this revamped and expanded tournament and next year’s World Cup, to be hosted in the USA, Canada and Mexico — an event many feel will be used by Trump to further push his message.
“He loves the game,” Infantino said of the man who sat next to him at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday. “You cannot organize a competition like this without the full support of the government. Great thanks to President Trump – he has been fantastic.”
So too was Chelsea’s Cole Palmer. The English attacking midfielder scored twice and made a third goal for Brazilian striker Joao Pedro to put European champions Paris Saint-Germain to the sword before halftime. PSG had no answer in the second half, as Chelsea cruised to victory.
Big money tournament
Infantino’s main measure of success for the Club World Cup, though, appears to be financial. He reported revenues of over $2 billion (€1.7 billion) and average earnings of $33 million per match for FIFA. Not bad for an organization whose remit is organization and promotion of the sport, rather than pure profit.
The fact that the final contained European teams who won two of three continental competitions in the season just finished is evidence of the primacy of European football. Three of the four semifinalists were European, as were the majority of the quarterfinalists. It remains to be seen how much a solidarity payment split between the rest of the teams in FIFA’s 211 member states will impact the inequalities in the global game.
Joao Pedro joined Chelsea during the tournament for a fee of about €64 million© Brian Snyder/REUTERS
Though Infantino has been effusive in his praise, many in the game have found failings with the first edition of a revamped competition pushed through by the FIFA boss.
“The Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard,” German coach Jürgen Klopp, who coached Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund said during the tournament. “People who have never had or do not have anything to do with day-to-day business anymore are coming up with something. There is insane money for participating, but it’s also not for every club.