FIFA president Gianni Infantino has called the Club World Cup “the most successful club competition in the world” ahead of Sunday’s final between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, Afrosport reports.
The expanded 32-team tournament faced criticism in the build-up for stretching the fitness of players and also being played at high temperatures in the United States, raising concerns for the health of players and fans.
There were also doubts about the level of interest the competition would generate among fans, however Infantino is satisfied and claims it has been a big financial success.
“The golden age of club football has started. We can definitely say this FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge success,” the Swiss said in New York City ahead of the final.
“We heard that financially it would not work, that nobody is interested, but I can say we generated almost $2.1 billion dollars in revenues, for 63 matches.
“That makes an average of $33 million per match – no other club competition in the world comes close.
“It is already the most successful club competition in the world.”
One game remaining…#FIFACWC pic.twitter.com/LYglfwqTGi
— FIFA Club World Cup (@FIFACWC) July 12, 2025
Former Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp called the Club World Cup “the worst idea ever implemented in football” but Infantino in his response, dismissed those claims, stressing all the participating teams are happy to play the tournament.
“We shouldn’t say that the opinion of Europe on this is very bad because it is not true,” he added.
“All the teams who have come here have been happy – some teams who didn’t come here because they didn’t qualify were calling us to see how they could qualify.
“Of course I would have liked to have Liverpool here, Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona, Tottenham, AC Milan, Napoli… but you have to qualify and there are different criteria.”
The next Club World Cup is set to take place in 2029, a year before the 2030 FIFA Club World Cup which will be hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay also hosting select games to celebrate 100 years of the Mundial.
