As anyone with ears knows, the world cup finished a while ago. Seemingly unbeknownst to most of the world though, the club world cup finished only last week. Despite being the literal world cup for club soccer teams, nobody cares. Why?
The reasons for the lack of interest are very interesting in my opinion. The club world cup pits clubs from every country in the world against each other, and yet almost everyone past the first few rounds is from europe. This is because every major soccer league or club with money and prestige is from europe. This means that only a few countries and their residents have the opportunity to watch this sport played at the highest level. Will this ever change?
As the transfer market becomes more and more inflated, it is a miracle that clubs can keep up. Oil clubs, or clubs purchased for incredible sums of money by owners who made their fortune from the mining and selling of oil, have led this push for more spending. Will this increased spending help smaller clubs and lesser known leagues? The biggest current example is Ronaldo’s move to Saudi Arabia. His move has not only made 200 millions dollars a year, it has made the club much richer. With more and more clubs with the ability to buy big name players it would seem that it would help the sport. The problem with this is that big names don’t always make good teams. For example, in paper PSG is the best team in the world. They have messi, the best player ever, paired with neymar and Mbappe, the best player in the world, in the front. That alone should make them unbeatable. Yet they still haven’t won a champions league title. Increased spending from smaller clubs will help them sign big names, but won’t make them better. This in turn will make it harder for big clubs to keep talented players, and will make everyone worse.
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