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On the corner of Jeddah’s Middle Corniche, across giant metal fences and looking more like one of the opulent palaces customary in this part of the world, is the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
A room in the five-star hotel for tonight’s Club World Cup final will set you back around £500, however, in recent weeks FIFA flags have been flying outside. It’s a miracle they weren’t at half-staff on Thursday.
This is, without a doubt, the basis of the governance framework of the last few weeks. It was at this hotel that they signed plans for a new expanded Club World Cup less than a week ago. When Manchester City take on Fluminese at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium on Friday, it will be the last thing in the existing format, which feels replaced and picturesque.
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The 32-team deal to be played in the United States in June and July 2025 is an attempt through FIFA to return some of the cash circulating around club football to its coffers. It is also part of a strategy to block secession attempts. FIFA has been hurt and angered by the Super League plans unveiled in April 2021.
But Thursday’s ruling by the European Court of Justice that UEFA and FIFA ban clubs from participating in breakaway competitions casts a shadow over the conclusion of tonight’s tournament. This has opened the door to the prospect of some other attempt to shape a Super League. City were the last to enter and the first to pass out every two and a half years and have no preference to revisit this sordid affair.
However, achieving this without abandoning some other festival is now almost impossible. UEFA has expanded the Champions League to 8 organising matches from next season and the FIFA World Jamboree will require seven matches to win, out of two. It is entirely believable that the City 2024/ Season 25 will feature more than 70 competitive games and will run from August to July.
It is fitting that this tournament is being held in Saudi Arabia, where football’s transformative forces prevail. The 2025 Club World Cup will likely be held in the United States, but don’t be surprised if we return here four years later.
You can see why FIFA felt like this tournament needed a shake up. A win for City on Friday night will mark 11 successive European victors. Their semi-final against Urawa Red Diamonds saw them win the shot count 24 to one. But the question is will the new format make it better, or just expose the chasm that is opening up between football in Europe and elsewhere?
City have already qualified for 2025 and will be among the favourites to win the award. For Fluminese and their South American rivals, they are never more likely to reach a Club World Cup final. It would possibly be the last chance for a club from this football-rich continent, a member of the world’s top league, in love with the award, to world champions. If City win, they will return to Manchester airport unnoticed. If the Fluminese wins, arrivals at Rio’s airport will be a bounce, buzzing mesh of red, green and white.
In 2025, a future organizational level that brings together Manchester City, Boca Juniors, Seattle Sounders and Al-Hilal is eclectic and exotic. But 12 of the 32 participants are from Europe and even if the number is limited to two depending on the country, the quarterfinals will actually be held in Europe. The semifinal will be a lockout. The danger is that this becomes a Champions League played in the summer. A Su consistent with League, basically.
The club game in South America can no longer compete with the European game. Saudi Arabia is perhaps the only other component in the world that will eventually compete with UEFA’s best. When the Pro League looks for skill this summer, it’s a question their clubs will eventually get their way into the Champions League. Now they don’t want it anymore. Al-Hilal is already here for 2025 and at least one more could follow.
The question is: will they be able to have the investment and interest to build groups that can pose a challenge?It was to be Al-Ittihad’s match, played in their hometown, but the team of Fabinho, N’Golo Kanté and Karim Benzema were eliminated before City and Fluminese entered, losing to Egyptian club Al Ahly.
But obviously they don’t have any goal of going anywhere. While in Saudi Arabia, Bernardo Silva asked via a local journalist if he would like to move here and Pep Guardiola tried to catch up with Aymeric Laporte and Riyad Mahrez to find out about their experiences.
The Club World Cup will give those groups the chance to take on European heavyweights and gain experience advantages. But in the near future, it will be a European monopoly. There’s something romantic about City’s play in Asia and South America this week. . In two years’ time they might play RB Leipzig.