FIFA (International Football Federation) gave 32 football teams a billion reasons to take the reformulated Club World Cup seriously when it announced its monstrous prize in March.
Each club had its appetite sharply for the announcement of the $ 1 billion prize, with the winning club potentially taking up to $ 125 million for less than a month of work.
Short -term gains were obvious – $ 2 million ($ 10.9 million) for a group game victory – but the intangible, the promise of commercial growth in a widely unexplored market, also guaranteed that no participating club disregarded the opportunity in the United States.
Empty seats in many stadiums and the irregular quality of football has led to some scathing comments, but for the clubs involved, this is a moment of brand construction and a chance to consolidate their market positions or boost growth.
The ECA (European Club Association), which has 11 of its members playing in the United States, is among those who defend the positive aspects, which contrast with the workload concerns of players’ unions.
“ECA has supported this tournament from the beginning,” said the president of the organization, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, also president of PSG (Paris Saint-Germain), before the start of the tournament. “We believe the FIFA Club World Cup will become a remarkable competition and can bring real benefits to all clubs.”
Or, in other words, the chance to put on your coffers.
The Club World Cup is another money generation exercise for its most famous participants. A golden and renamed preseason tour; An introduction to new audiences with accumulated checks along the way.
FIFA has been promoting players and coaches extolling the chance to make history by raising trophies, but executives will inevitably be seeing it from a different perspective for now. One in which the equity balance sheets are built and their brand finds ballast.
“I know firsthand that clubs that compete in the Club World Cup are extremely favorable to her; they see it as a great opportunity,” said Phil Carling, who is the chief of football of the Octagon marketing agency and was once a commercial director of FA (England Football Association).
He added: “Talent follows the money, attention follows the talent and money follows attention. Adding all this, it helps to understand the commercial model for the elite sport.”
The Club World Cup may not have the prestige and rewards of the Champions League, but FIFA’s summer competition has the potential to generate some financial boost. Products can be sold and followers on social networks can be conquered based on exploits in the United States.
“There is a new generation of fans to be won, and this is really the main battlefield,” said Tim Crow, a sports marketing consultant. “It’s not about winning the traditional fan. It’s a matter of winning new fans.”
The fight is to ensure international fans with money to spend. This is why Manchester United will travel to the Metropolitan Region of New York, Chicago and Atlanta in July, after a trip to the Far East. Arsenal has its own plans in Singapore and Hong Kong, while Liverpool and Barcelona travel to Japan, among other countries.
Coaches such as Manchester United Ruben Amorim, Mikel Arteta do Arsenal, Barcelona’s Liverpool and Hansi Flick Arne Slot are probably pleased with the rest of their players, but people in charge of raising profiles and improving brands in these clubs will be silently regretting not being part of the Club World Cup.
“All the great premier League clubs that are not part of it will be wishing to be there,” said Carling of Octagon, who led the Arsenal commercial team in the 1990s. “There would be no board that received a FIFA call to participate for six months that would refuse a row boat to cross the Atlantic.”
“The cash prize is one thing, but the prestige and where it positions you as a club, as an entity within world football, is very important.”
Manchester City executive director Ferran Soriano said his club was enthusiastic about being one of the 32 teams involved. “I think it was very necessary,” he said to reporters recently.
Real Madrid Florentino Pérez was more enthusiastic. “It’s a beautiful competition and I’m sure it will be a big hit,” he told the Dazn sports streaming network. “We came here with great enthusiasm.”
The location of this Club World Cup, held in 11 host cities in the United States, added appeal to its participants. There may be a large number of Americans who care little about their presence, but the largest European clubs have long been completed that it was the market with the highest potential to explore.
“If you asked most Premier League clubs to list the three main markets to which they would like FIFA to take it, the United States would certainly be there,” Crow said.
“It’s a giant economy. Forty cents from every dollar spent on sports marketing worldwide emanates from the United States. It makes a lot of sense to go there and try to enjoy this engine. The big European clubs have been working constantly in the US market for a long time,” he added.
The Club World Cup remains an unknown tournament when starting its knockout phase. No one, not even FIFA President Gianni Infantino, can predict where his favorite project will be in ten years.
Win the final in New Jersey on July 13 will really count far beyond the fortune waiting for the winners? Only time will say, but there is a reason for Manchester City, Real Madrid, PSG and others are desperate to find out.
This Club World Cup, despite all its detractors, is a big step towards more.
