Duffers' Diaries: Club World Cup - nothing more than a FIFA cash cow

Nor, for that matter, will you likely see all that many making similar efforts to get to the games themselves.

The FIFA Club World Cup – or Club World Championship in its previous guise – has been around since the turn of the century. It was one of those annoying mid-season tournaments that drags clubs from around the world of varying prestige but that have enjoyed great relative success to battle it out to see who can boast the title of being the best on the planet.

The fact that it’s only ever been won four times by a non-European club – and all four of those being by Brazilians – probably tells you all you need to know about who the best team in the world could claim to be at any given time, and that’s generally whoever most recently won the European Champions League.

But FIFA recently decided on a considerable shake-up of the event, somewhat hubristically making it a quadrennial showpiece with far more teams taking part and adjusting the format to be similar to the ‘proper’ World Cup.

In fairness, if the tournament was going to continue at all, something had to be done, because generally nobody cared about it. Probably only the fans of the clubs who have won it could tell you who they beat in the final. Remember Manchester United 1-0 LDU Quito, anyone? No, thought not.

It’s all about money, of course. FIFA sees at close hand the riches that the club game produces and saw an opportunity to take their share. The $1 billion prize pot dictates that the clubs taking part will do OK out of it, meaning the owners are no doubt happy enough.

But whilst on paper the idea, and in some cases novelty value, of some of these sides playing against each other looks appealing, the reality is the opposite.

The location of the tournament plays a part. Have it in Europe and it might gain a bit more traction. Anywhere else and you’re pushing your luck from the start.

Domestically-based fans of these clubs who have just spent fortunes following their team around the country and Europe in pursuit of silverware worth winning, are highly unlikely to now fork out huge amounts more to see their team aiming to win silverware that isn’t.

At the time of writing, just 12 games have been played and the main headlines so far have been just how embarrassing it was that poor Auckland City – who rightly deserve the plaudits for their own domestic and continental success – were shoved in front of Bayern Munich and expected to make a game of it, and of course how many empty seats have been prevalent at each game.

That in itself is partly down to the more than optimistic expectation from FIFA that there would be sell-out crowds in huge stadiums, rather than aiming for the more modest venues all round, especially for the group games.

Some attendances in isolation have been OK if you ignore the number of people some of the stadia COULD hold – a 55,000 crowd here, a 45,000 gate there – but whilst 3,000 being at the Mamelodi Sundowns v Ulsan game, played in a 25,000 seater stadium, might have been inevitable given the nature of the clubs involved and the difficulty their fans would likely face just getting to the country, it wasn’t a good look.

The fact this is all taking place in the USA is both a help and a hindrance. Crowds would be much lower all round if this was all taking place in any other non-European country and even if it was in Europe only the bigger games would likely attract fuller stadia.

But America’s location means probably only the clubs from neighbouring countries will have the more die-hard fans making the trip, with other non-neutral spectators likely made up by ex-pats and/or US-based fans of other countries’ clubs.

Perhaps the biggest talking point though remains player welfare.

For some at the Club World Cup, the chance to perform on a world or even international stage at all will be a rarity, a great experience to travel to a neutral country and play in front of a worldwide TV audience. That might particularly apply to those who don’t feature regularly in international sides.

But for many others, well, they just want a break.

Yes, a good few out there will be on astronomical wages and some might say they should therefore be expected to perform when they’re told, but they are only human.

If I’d just played 50-plus games of domestic, continental and probably international football, I’d be on the beach and staying there for several weeks before pre-season starts – which itself would probably entail playing a few friendly games a 12-hour flight away.

Of course you make exceptions for the major international tournaments, but this one too? I doubt many players are that thrilled by it.

It will never be anywhere near the pinnacle of a player’s career to win the Club World Cup – they’ve likely already reached the pinnacle to get there in the first place in club terms – so why flog them even further?

Again, it’s a money thing, and that’s the way football is now, but FIFA can’t be surprised if this ends up being something of a failure irrespective of what money they might make.

Of course, this is the first competition in the new format and maybe in years to come there may be more interest and prestige attached to taking part and winning it.

But I doubt it.