The FIFA Club World Cup is in full swing. What you need to know

The FIFA Club World Cup continues in the USA. On the last day of the group stage, on June 26, there will be a match between the European giants Juventus and Manchester City, who will play for the first place in their quartet. This year, the competition has radically changed its format, which has become a reason for criticism from fans. What the World Cup is for clubs now is in the Izvestia article.

What is the World Club Championship?

• Attempts to create a tournament that would bring together the best football clubs in the world have been made repeatedly since the 1950s. The most famous such competition was the Intercontinental Cup, which was played by the winner of the European Champions League and the winner of the South American Copa Libertadores. The tournament, despite some problems with the organization, was held from 1960 to 2004 and became part of the history of football.

• By the early 2000s, the International Football Federation (FIFA), which had previously organized only competitions for national teams, decided to hold its own club tournament. The first World Club Championship under its auspices was held in 2000, and has been held regularly since 2005, eventually completely replacing the Intercontinental Cup.

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• The FIFA Club World Cup had a number of special features. It brought together all the current winners of the continental competitions, not only from Europe and South America, but also from Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania. They were usually joined by the champion of the host country. The tournament was held either in Asia or in Morocco, hoping to attract sponsors and fan interest in the stars who came from Europe.

• The tournament survived in this format until 2023, after which FIFA completely redesigned it. It was decided to turn the club World Cup into a World Cup rehearsal for national teams, like the Confederations Cup used to be. The number of participants and duration of the new tournament have been increased, and at the same time the frequency has been reduced — now it is held every four years. The first such World Cup is taking place in the USA these days.

• At the same time, the old format with one team from each continent has not disappeared. Now such a tournament is called the Intercontinental Cup and is still held every year in December in one of the countries that is able to provide decent funding.

How is the tournament going today

• The 2025 World Cup brought together 32 clubs. There were four teams from Africa, Asia and North America, six from South America, one from Oceania, 12 from Europe and also a representative of the host Inter Miami. To qualify for the tournament, you either had to win your continental championship in the last four years, or be at the top of the ranking of the best clubs in your part of the world.

• The format of the tournament in the USA is a tracing paper from the classic World Cup, when 32 teams also participated in it. All of them are divided into eight groups of four participants, with the top two clubs from each group advancing to the playoffs. The playoffs begin with the 1/8 finals stage and end with the final match. There is no meeting for the third place. The games take place at 10 stadiums in the United States, mostly on the east coast, which is closer to Europe.

• At the moment, the third round of the group stage is coming to an end. Mainly European and American clubs have already been able to enter the playoffs: Inter Miami from the USA, Brazilian Palmeiras, Botafogo, Flamengo and Fluminese, French PSG, German Bayern and Borussia, Portuguese Benfica, English Chelsea and Manchester City, Italy's Inter and Juventus, Argentina's River Plate.

• The group stage will end on June 26. Juventus and Manchester City will play the most interesting match of the day. They have already made it to the playoffs thanks to wins over Moroccan Widad and Al Ain from the UAE and will now play for first place in Group G. For fans, it will be an opportunity to watch the only match between the two European giants before the start of the playoffs. It is already known what time the Juventus –Manchester City match will start and where it can be watched. The game starts at 22:00 Moscow time on June 26, and it will be available to watch live on the streaming service.

• Juventus became the second most productive team after Bayern Munich after two rounds, but Manchester City have not conceded a single goal so far and have not conceded more than one since April. At the same time, the English club is actively changing the squad, giving the players the opportunity to rest at the end of the season, while the Italian team cannot afford this. The latest news about the match and predictions about it give reason to consider Manchester City the favorite against Juventus.

Why is there criticism?

• The new format of the World Club Championship has not received unequivocal approval from the football community. The FIFPRO football union and other organizations criticized the tournament for overloading the game calendar. If professional football players usually ended their club season at the end of May, now many teams have received additional workload and continued to play for another month, and some players will have to play until mid-July. This is fraught with injuries and disruption of preparations for the next season. In addition, the club World Cup fell on June 30, the traditional end date for players' contracts. This required FIFA to change the standard rules for transferring from one club to another, so that transfers would not take place right in the middle of the club World Cup.

• Although the club World Cup attracted a lot of titled teams, the tournament still did not arouse increased interest from fans. At the same time, ticket prices were initially set much higher than at a regular World Cup. FIFA had to constantly reduce the cost of tickets to avoid empty stands. It got to the point where the organizers even allowed students to buy a package of five tickets for $20 for the opening match between Inter Miami and Egyptian Al-Ahly.

• The participation of Inter Miami itself caused a mixed reaction from the fans. The club entered the tournament as the winner of the regular season of the American Major League Soccer (MLS), and not the playoffs, in which the Miami club eventually lost. In addition, the decision to invite Inter Miami was announced after the end of the regular season, meaning other clubs did not know that they could qualify in this way. Critics attributed the team's invitation to the fact that Lionel Messi, one of the best players in history, stands for it, which could attract additional attention to the tournament.

• The attendance of the World Club Championship was also influenced by the policy of the American authorities towards migrants. Many fans from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and other Latin American countries who would like to support their teams did not travel to the United States for fear that migration services might detain them and deport them.