Club World Cup has generated $2.1bn – FIFA president

Club World Cup has generated $2.1bn – FIFA president

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has revealed that the inaugural Club World Cup has generated $2.1bn in revenues in 63 matches ahead of the final between Chelsea, and PSG.

The two European giants will battle it out for the trophy on Sunday at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The competition was criticised for stretching demands on elite players and has been played out in extremely hot temperatures in the United States, raising concerns for the health of those involved.

However, Infantino described it as the most successful club competition in the world while revealing the amount of money made so far.

He said: “The golden age of club football has started. We can definitely say this Fifa Club World Cup has been a huge success.

“We respect everyone’s opinion. It has been successful. We have had over 2.5 million in the stadium. That’s around 40,000 spectators per match – there is no league in the world with that number, except the Premier League which, of course, has home teams and these are neutral stadiums.

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“We heard that financially it would not work, that nobody is interested, but I can say we generated almost $2.1 billion in revenues, for 63 matches.

“That makes an average of $33 million per match – no other club competition in the world comes close. It is already the most successful club competition in the world.”

Infantino also shut down Jurgen Klopp’s criticism of the competition, claiming that the former Liverpool manager did not speak for European clubs.

He said: “We shouldn’t say that the opinion of Europe on this is very bad because it is not true.

“All the teams who have come here have been happy – some teams who didn’t come here because they didn’t qualify were calling us to see how they could qualify.

“Of course I would have liked to have Liverpool here, Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona, Tottenham, AC Milan, Napoli… but you have to qualify and there are different criteria.”

A total of $1 billion in prize money will be distributed to the 32 participating teams, including solidarity payments and an amount for each team based on their home confederation.

Club World Cup has generated $2.1bn – FIFA president