Matinas Suzuki Jr. wrote in Sheeton the opening day of the 1994 World Cup: “The World Cup tries to conquer America.” The kick -off of this new World Cup, Clubs, is of another nature.
A year from the second World Cup in the United States, what FIFA wants is not to lose control over the entire football industry, for decades threatened by the attempt to create the club Superleague, first by Silvio Berlusconi, more recently by leaders of 12 clubs in Spain, England, Germany and Italy.
It is wrong to think that FIFA promotes the club cup for money. The sale of rights yielded $ 1 billion ($ 5.5 billion) and is exactly the amount passed on awards.
The question of the question is not to allow someone to take over from clubs, which attract the biggest audience to football.
The movement is explicit. President Gianni Infantino records videos for two years, welcoming the new classifieds, and FIFA makes a point of stressing that the official name is this: Club World Cup.
The question is as it will be in the United States.
The first signs are of absolute ignorance of the Americans about what will happen in the country in the next 31 days. Interviewees situated below posters indicative of the World Cup claim not to be aware of the tournament.
It was not much different in 1994.
The World Cup panels were spread throughout the cities 31 years ago. They were all over the city of Palo Alto, where Brazil played their first two games.
The 1994 World Cup began in Chicago with Germany X Bolivia on June 17. The same night I arrived in Los Angeles to cover Colombia’s debut against Romania. There was no sign of the World Cup in the city.
Silence!
The next morning, when I left the hotel, I was amazed at the amount of Latin Americans everywhere, of any nationality.
A fright!
The World Cup was not on the streets or in the newspapers. He laid ground in the stadiums. To this day, the 1994 World Cup is a public record of FIFA tournaments.
And it was a cost to find a page on the USA today, even less at The New York Times or The Daily News in San Francisco.
You can’t know if the club cup will repeat success. What is already perceived is the resounding Latin presence as a driving force of the tournament. Palmeirenses and red-blacks took over Times Square in New York wearing shirts from their clubs.
The airports receive Juniors and River Plate t -shirts. Monterrey and Pachuca fans are silent but ready to invade the stands. Of the 12 stadiums, eight have over 60,000 places.
Tickets micked until the beginning of the week, and FIFA was bothered by the disclosure of this information.
Also because more than 30,000 people bought tickets for Palmeiras x Porto, in the New York region.
In 1994, Matinas Suzuki Jr. wrote that since Galileo Galilei the world was not such a flagrant ball. Today, even Donald Trump surrendered to the tournament and reinforced his alliance with Infantino. But there is a contradiction: its beloved World Cup will only work thanks to the huge collaboration of Latin immigrants.
