On October 2 2024, Inter Miami defeated Columbus Crew in a remarkable 3-2 victory to score the club their first ever Supporters’ Shield. During the team’s celebration the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, came onto the pitch to make a huge announcement that the FIFA Club World Cup would be taking on a new tournament format. Similar to the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup would now become a 32-team tournament consisting of the “most successful club sides from each of the six international confederations: AFC, CAF, Concacaf, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA.” This was according to FIFA on their official website.

The new tournament was set to take place from June 14 2025 – July 13 2025 with USA set to be the host nation for the competition. Inter Miami gained automatic entry into the competition due to the competition being held in the USA and the club being selected as the hosts due to their previously mentioned Supporters’ Shield success. The other 31 clubs gained entry through their continental success such as winning the Champions League, Champions Cup or Libertadores in the last 5 years, through their continental rankings and one team qualified by winning the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Play-In.

The main question is, was this new revamped Club World Cup considered a success? The factors to consider are:

Cons:

  • Empty Seats and Ticket Prices. A month before the competition, it was reported by the TheAthleticFC that there were concerns about the poor fan interest regarding the Club World Cup with the opening day match selling less than 25 000 tickets for a stadium that has capacity of around 65 000 seats. There were also other factors affecting attendance such as the steep ticket prices, where some ticket prices were inevitably slashed up to 84% of their original pricing. Following that, many group-stage matches saw sparse attendance: some venues were less than 57% full, and as many as 1 million empty seats were logged across early matches. The lowest recorded turnout was just 3 412 fans at Inter & Co Stadium for a Ulsan-HD vs. Mamelodi Sundowns match with a capacity of over 25,000 seats available.
  • Sporting Imbalance. During the competition there was a massive class difference between the European clubs and the rest of the teams in the competition. As reported by The Guardian, European clubs overwhelmingly dominated the results; critics emphasized that only around 12% of matches were won by teams outside UEFA/South America.
  • Weather Conditions and Scheduling. Major concerns emerged over the summer heat which caused midgame cooling breaks, midday kickoff times, and fixture congestion which especially affected non-European teams and worries of fatigue from some top European players who had played in the UEFA Nations League Final Stages prior to the Club World Cup.

Pros:

  • Attendance & Revenue. FIFA President Gianni Infantino declared the tournament a “huge, huge success,” highlighting the tournament having nearly 2.5 million spectators and having an average attendance of around 40,000 per match which is second only to the Premier League globally according to reports by The Stadium Business. Total revenues reached approximately $2.1 billion translating to $33 million per match. FIFA’s digital engagement also soared with 16 million unique visitors to FIFA.com in June, plus 6 million new social media followers and 1 million app downloads.
  • Brand & Broadcast Reach. A landmark deal with DAZN provided free global streaming of all matches in 32 languages, sharply increasing FIFA's digital impact according to reports by Inside FIFA. Among other deals were SportyTV partnering up with Iris Media to stream FIFA Club World Cup games in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya for free on YouTube as reported by Focus Gaming News.

From a financial standpoint, the Club World Cup could be considered a great success, however from a footballing fans’ viewpoint the competition requires a lot more attention in terms of execution with its marketing, representation and overall scheduling that may have played a huge factor in the performances and injuries of top European teams and players.