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Auckland City suffered a 0-10 defeat to Bayern Munich in the FIFA Club World Cup. |
There are big scores in football, and there are scores that make you wonder: why is this game happening? Bayern Munich 10-0 Auckland City was not only the biggest win in Club World Cup history, but also living proof that FIFA is risking the very prestige of the tournament by expanding it to 32 teams.
The game ends in 5 minutes.
In theory, the expanded Club World Cup is intended to promote the growth of global football. But when a semi-professional team from New Zealand – where players must train after work – faces a team that has won 34 Bundesliga titles and six Champions Leagues, the notion of “fairness” or “competition” becomes a terrible joke.
Any romantic dream ended early. It took just five minutes for Kingsley Coman to open the scoring. From there, goals rained down on the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati as a natural consequence.
By the 45th minute, the score was 6-0 - equalling the old Club World Cup record set by Al-Hilal in 2022. When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard read 10-0, and the Auckland players looked up as if they had just experienced a match that was not of the same level.
Musiala - who only came on in the 61st minute - still managed to score a hat-trick, while Thomas Müller rounded off the rout with his 250th goal for Bayern. A proper rehearsal for the German champions.
But the point is not that Bayern won by a landslide – they still needed to show they were serious, and they did. The point is: why leave a team like Auckland City, despite their efforts, facing a mountain without any climbing equipment?
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Bayern Munich's victory leaves many questions for FIFA. |
This is not simply a story of 90 one-sided minutes. The gap between Bayern and Auckland is a story of two different worlds .
One side has an empire with a turnover of nearly £740m, the other a club that earns just £491,000 a year. One side spends £400,000 a week on Harry Kane’s wages, the other imposes a cap of NZ$150 – less than £70 – on semi-professional players.
To put it simply, it would take Auckland's highest-paid player… more than 100 years to earn what Kane makes in a week.
The difference also comes from squad value (Bayern nearly 770 million pounds, Auckland less than 4 million), training conditions, number of support staff and even position on the Opta rankings - Bayern ranked 6th, Auckland ranked... 5,074.
Not to mention, the Auckland squad includes primary school teachers, hairdressers, insurance agents, and students. Left-back Nathan Lobo even had to take his university entrance exams in a hotel during the tournament.
Is FIFA's global dream turning into a farce?
The idea of “globalizing” football is a beautiful idea. But it’s not always feasible without the right stepping stones. When FIFA expanded the Club World Cup to 32 teams, it didn’t just widen the playing field – it exposed a gap that much of the world wasn’t ready to bridge.
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Auckland is completely outclassed by Bayern in every way. |
Auckland are not to blame. They are fully deserving of the tournament, four-time Oceania champions, 13-time OFC Champions League winners. But putting them in the same group as Bayern is unreasonable - like putting primary school students in a PhD entrance exam and blaming them for... doing poorly.
The result? The match was a comedy. One side fired 31 shots, had 72% possession, and scored 10 goals. The other side had only one weak shot and barely touched the ball in the opponent's half.
The impact of the match was not limited to the score. On social media, many people openly criticized the match as “ unsportsmanlike ” and “unworthy of broadcasting”. Others called it “the best day of the Auckland player’s career” – which is true, but more of a consolation than a reality.
Even the match’s commentator, Anita Asante, admitted that this was a “special opportunity” for Auckland. But the audience wasn’t asked to watch an “opportunity”. They were promised a top-level tournament, with competition and quality – something that was clearly absent in Cincinnati that night.
Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said after the match: “We have to stay humble. But this is a serious game and the challenges ahead will be more difficult.”
He is right. The upcoming game against Boca Juniors will be the real test. But before that, the game against Auckland will be recalled - not for its technicality, but for the questions it leaves FIFA with: Is it time to wake up from this global dream?
Source: https://znews.vn/10-0-o-club-world-cup-fifa-co-dang-dua-voi-bong-da-post1561132.html
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