Premier League beware – Gianni Infantino and the Club World Cup are coming for you

Telegraph

10 hours ago

As Enzo Maresca basked in the afterglow of victory on Sunday, the Chelsea manager declared unexpectedly that one day the Fifa Club World Cup would be bigger even than the Champions League, just one more bold statement in another bizarre 24 hours in Fifa world.
The Chelsea captain Reece James would say much the same later. Both parts of Chelsea's American ownership consortium have long been committed to the Club World Cup and would have approved. It will have been just what Gianni Infantino wanted to hear. But what does it mean for football and the English game, which has the world's most lucrative domestic league?
Infantino wants the Club World Cup to be the club game's most prestigious trophy – overtaking the Champions League and its regional equivalents. Yet the Fifa president has not said where the next tournament is taking place or how soon it will come around again. Will it be 2029, or perhaps 2027 on a two-year cycle? Will Saudi Arabia again pay for it, as the state has done with the $1 billion stake in broadcaster DAZN in February via an investment that effectively financed this summer's competition?
How many times must the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman place the resources of the state at the disposal of Infantino in return for the 2034 World Cup finals, already delivered to Saudi Arabia by decree of a Fifa Congress? It would be hard to argue that this summer's Club World Cup has supercharged interest among broadcasters. Interest was so low originally that licensees were offering DAZN zero-pound contracts to show it.
The game is at a crossroads. Infantino must keep the Club World Cup alive long enough to establish it as the standard bearer for his vision of a globalised elite. In Europe, Uefa's prize is the Champions League which pays for everything and was expanded and recalibrated post 2024 to go head to head with Fifa's offering. Meanwhile, the Premier League is among 39 domestic leagues, along with players' union Fifpro which is taking legal action against Fifa. It believes that the calendar is at breaking point – and domestic football under serious threat.
Industry insiders say that only two of the three tiers – global, continental and then domestic competitions – will survive in their current state. It is not hard to see why the Premier League is so worried at the plans Infantino has to make sure his competition becomes pre-eminent.
The Club World Cup is the 2021 Super League in a different guise. It was notable that this morning, the only major football figure to issue the conventional public congratulations to Fifa and Infantino on completion of the tournament was Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. Real commended Fifa's 'brilliant organisation'. Perez, of course, remains a Super League extremist, still committed to the idea and its associated corporate entities.
He remains at odds with Uefa president Aleksandar Ceferin and La Liga – which makes Perez a very useful ally for Infantino. Nevertheless, at 78, the Real Madrid president will not go on forever. His successor will be courted by both sides.
There is another part of the game which has a major stake in this and has so far said little or nothing on the subject. That, of course, is the national associations affiliated to Fifa, and especially the English Football Association and its western European counterparts. In her role as a member of the Fifa Council, FA chair Debbie Hewitt was at the MetLife Stadium for Sunday's final.
Yet the day after the conclusion of the most controversial and disruptive tournament ever launched by a Fifa president, none of them said anything. The FA's official England account on Twitter/X posted congratulations to Chelsea's England contingent, and that was it.
The FA is the only English football institution that has a vote at Fifa – worth not much when Infantino has so much of Africa and south and central America tied up. But at the very least it is the conduit by which Fifa communicates with English football on official terms. Yet the FA knows nothing as to when the next Club World Cup might be, how many teams might play in it and where – and most importantly – what its effect might be on the global calendar.
The FA did mention the Club World Cup very briefly in its annual report, published in April – although only as an example of the challenges new tournaments presented to the structure of the game. It touched on the welfare of players but there was no detailed reference to the tumultuous consequences a reordering of the game might have for domestic English football. The FA has designs on hosting the 2035 women's World Cup and must weigh its words carefully.
The Premier League cannot speak directly to Fifa – certainly not officially. That is why it, along with others, has had to take the Swiss organisation to court. In the meantime, surrounded by powerful club owners, and even more powerful heads of state, Infantino seems to be auctioning off parts of Fifa to interested parties.
The 2034 World Cup finals have gone to Saudi. The United States got the Club World Cup, financed by Saudi Arabia. What comes next is not clear. But the silence from the national associations from the big European nations – England, Germany, France and the rest – is quite telling. They feel impotent in the face of these geopolitical negotiations done in their name.
Infantino has impeccable contacts in the ownership of English football clubs – Todd Boehly was by Infantino's side at the trophy presentation and the Fifa president attended a game at Manchester City this season. When Infantino took power at Fifa in 2016 he was backed, rather incautiously, by an English FA that at the time was just delighted to see the back of Sepp Blatter.
But now the future looks ever more uncertain. Infantino has now had his moment with Donald Trump on the pitch in New Jersey on Sunday. The Saudis are on board, at least until 2034. The Premier League and other domestic leagues are heading to court with Fifa and the whole calendar seems to be up for grabs. Let us not forget that Infantino has promised a women's Club World Cup too, although what year that will be and where in the calendar it will appear is, as with many of these things, as yet unclear.
Will the Club World Cup be bigger than the Champions League eventually, as Maresca thinks may yet be the case? It certainly will need another generous backer to get it through its next iteration – whenever and wherever that might be – but Infantino is unlikely to let it fade away now. He has too much personal capital tied up in it for that. And no-one in his own Fifa family is offering any discouragement.