Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has disagreed with the assertion of former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp that the revamped 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, rather calling it a “fantastic competition”, Afrosport reports.
Klopp, now head of global soccer at Red Bull, earlier described the ongoing tournament in the United States as “the worst idea ever invented”.
However, Wenger, who now heads FIFA’s chief of global football development, countered those remarks, stating it was not the view of everyone.
“Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and I don’t share Jurgen Klopp’s view at all,” Wenger said during a FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG) briefing in New York on Thursday.
“I feel that a Club World Cup, a real Club World Cup, was needed. If you make an inquiry today with all the clubs who were here at this competition, I’m basically sure that we have 100% of answers of people who want to do this again. So that’s basically the best answer.”
There have been questions raised over low attendance across venues during the tournament, and Wenger claimed it was much higher than reported.
“The decisive question is, do the fans like it? Attendance projections were low, but in reality, they were much higher. The answer is there,” he added.
Another area of concern has been high levels of heat, which has posed problems for not just players but fans, as most stadiums at the Club World Cup are not covered.
Wenger acknowledged the problem and said FIFA is taking steps to address the issue ahead of next summer’s World Cup, which will also take place in neighbouring Mexico and Canada.
“The heat in some games was a problem,” Wenger stated. “We tried to combat that with cooling breaks and watering the pitches during breaks. We learned a lot on that front.
“Certainly, next year, there will be more roofed stadiums as we have to follow the TV schedule. We are learning to be better equipped to deal with these conditions.”
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The Club World Cup will come to an end on Sunday when Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain lock horns at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with the winner set to take a whooping $125 million.
