Wenger dismisses Klopp criticism, says Club World Cup 'is needed'
Arsène Wenger has dismissed sharp criticism from Jürgen Klopp on the Club World Cup in the United States and said that the tournament in its new expanded form was "needed" for global football.
"Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I don't share the view of Jürgen Klopp at all," the BBC quoted Wenger as saying.
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Former Liverpool manager Klopp had told German weekend paper Welt am Sonntag two weeks ago that the Club World Cup was the 'worst idea ever implemented in football'.
Wenger, the former long-time Arsenal manager who is now Chief of Global Football Development at the world governing body FIFA, begged to differ.
"I feel a Club World Cup is needed. If you make enquiries to all the clubs who were here then 100% of answers would be that they would want to do it again. That's the best answer of what the clubs think of a Club World Cup.
"And the decisive question is do the fans like it or not? We believe the attendances were projected as low and in reality were much higher. The answer is there."
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Some 2.5 million people attended the games of the 32-team event which culminates in Sunday's final between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, with US President Donald Trump planning to be present.
However, intense heat, early kick-off times to satisfy the European audience as well as less attractive teams and initial high ticket prices also meant that there were plenty of empty seats at several matches, especially in the early stages.
The heat was a major factor and Wenger spoke of learning experience ahead of next year's World Cup the US co-hosts with Mexico and Canada.
"The heat in some games was a problem but we tried to combat that with cooling breaks, watering the pitches during the break and overall I feel we learned a lot on that front," Wenger said.
"Certainly next year in stadiums there will also be more with roofs and the TV times will be more sensitive. At the same time, the weather conditions can be a problem for everybody."
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