Even with only their four semifinal representatives, Fluminense, Brazilian clubs will leave the FIFA World Cup with a better international concept than they had when the tournament began. Foreign analysts corroborate what the numbers have shown since the first phase.
At the same time, the expanded version of the competition, which opened this year, remains the target of criticism, distrust or the disdain on the part of the Europeans – that, despite that, played the World Cup with all their clubs classified and probably will play again if another. The explanation of the apparent paradox is the thick money involved in the operation, with figures and Saudi Arabia as a billionaire sponsor to ensure everything.
Botafogo’s victories over PSG, Flamengo to Chelsea and Fluminense against Inter Milan and Al-Hilal (who had eliminated Manchester City) crowning the Brazilian return in the revamped competition, in which since the beginning of the past decade, the country’s clubs have accumulated failures against Europeans.
Even now in the US, a Brazilian’s last victory over an old continent rival in the competition had been in 2012, when Corinthians hit Chelsea in the final.
“I was very impressed by the positive results of Brazilian clubs. At least in Europe, their reputation had declined a lot after the bad results of recent years in the ‘old’ club World Cup. It was also comforting to see that the greedy European clubs did not steal all the best Brazilian players,” he said to Sheet British sports journalist and commentator Keir Radnedge, who covered 14 cups, is the author of 36 football books and former editor of World Soccer magazine.
PSG coach, champion of Champions League, former player Luis Enrique filled Botafogo with praise after losing from the Rio team in the first phase. “It was the team that best defended themselves against us throughout the season, both in our league [francesa] as in Champions. “
According to former American player Tobin Heath, a member of the FIFA Technical Study Group for the World Cup, Brazilians were a good surprise for the collegiate. Two -time world champion and an Olympic champion for the US national team, she admitted that group members expected greater European rule and mentioned Flamengo as a novelty, “with their excellent ball retention and varied attack style.”
For Scottish journalist and writer Andrew Downie, who lived for 20 years in Brazil and today lives in Madrid, Brazilians “leave better [do Mundial] Yes, because they take it more seriously, and the results speak for themselves. “
Author of a biography of Socrates and about to finish one of Pelé, Downie ponders: “But nothing changes in my view. There will be no less Brazilian players going to Europe, or more Europeans coming in Brazil. The Brazilian Championship won’t be stronger or more organized because the four Brazilian teams have reached Wednesdays.”
In addition to the calendar this time unfavorable to Europeans – in season end, while Brazilians are at the beginning, the reverse of the latest editions of the tournament – the heat has been pointed as an advantage for those of the tropics. Technicians such as Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca and Manchester City Pep Guardiola complained about the high temperatures, which impair training and weaken athletes during the matches.
And there is, of course, the clear evolution (financial, professional and technical) of Brazilian clubs in recent years, especially Flamengo and Palmeiras, the richest and most organized. The recent injection of money in national football, with the millions dumped by the Bets and the proliferation of the SAFs, made The Economist Prede magazine in a recent report that Brazil could be ground for a next Premier League, the English League, the most valuable in the world.
In any case, the new Club World Cup remains of powerful stones. The complaints heard by those who play the US tournament are whispers near the squeak of other important actors. German Jurgen Klopp, a former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund coach and today Red Bull’s soccer executive, has made some of the toughest public criticism of the Club World Cup by defining him as “the worst idea ever implemented in football.”
The president of the Spanish League, Javier Tebas, has been a staunch opponent of the tournament since the new format was announced. Alleging overload for athletes and lack of dates on the calendar, the top hat has said it will do what is possible to prevent a new edition from now four years from now, as planned.
For now the opposition seems to be innocuous. While on the one hand the Players Union (FIFPRO) has already threatened to strike and brought to the European Commission a complaint against FIFA, in practice it is the latter who continues to define the world calendar.
As a specialist in management and sports law states that travels on the high wheels of football and spoke with the report on the condition of anonymity, there is a principle in the sports system that if a club does not play an official competition, it cannot play the others; You cannot, therefore, choose what you play, have to participate in the official calendar of competitions.
As for the calendar complaint, FIFA has said that there are a maximum of seven games every four years and rebuts the argument that if there was no tournament, European players would now be on vacation. In fact, he claims, the club cup came to replace the Confederations Cup, which was also happening every four years.
Due to reasoning, as these are high -level clubs, it is likely that most players in the US were defending their teams in the now extinct Confederations Cup.
Political-economic pragmatism indicates that in the arm wrestling the complaints must lose. The awards of the Club World Cup, $ 1 billion ($ 5.4 billion), is attractive even to European giants. Who is paying most of the account is Saudi Arabia, current favorite partner of the management Gianni Infantino.
One of the biggest sponsors of the US tournament is PUF (Public Investment Fund), the sovereign background of Saudi Monarchy. The amount of the quota was not disclosed, but it is known that only by the transmission rights the fund paid $ 1 billion to FIFA ($ 5.4 billion), via Dazn, a company that in turn received an investment of another $ 1 billion from SURJ, sports arm of PIF.
Amid this profitable partnership, FIFA announced Saudi Arabia as headquarters of the 2034 World Cup. Shortly before, the regime had bought the control of four clubs in the country, including Al-Hilal, the world’s largest surprise by eliminating Manchester City.
Therefore, knowledgeable of football intestines are sure that by least 2034, the new format of the Club World Cup would be guaranteed. For Saudis, despite the high account, is a big deal, a chance to associate a positive image with a country where homosexuality is a crime, human rights (especially women) crawl and whose prince and prime minister Mohammad bin Salman, is accused of having sent a journalist.
It seems to be part of Realpolitik of the game. In reference to your compatriots, but in a prediction easily adaptable to the ball mainstream as a whole, commentator Keir Radnedge is ferinary about the future of the World Cup: “While the money is there, the English clubs will be.”
