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Klopp criticizes FIFA Club World Cup 2025. |
Arsene Wenger has described the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup as a "fantastic tournament" and highlighted the support it has received from participating teams, players and coaches. Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp described the tournament as "the worst idea ever" in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt two weeks ago. Wenger, now FIFA's head of global football development, has denied the idea at a press conference of FIFA's Technical Study Group (TSG) in New York on Thursday.
"Everyone has the right to their opinion, and I completely disagree with Jurgen Klopp's view. I feel that there should be a tournament like the Club World Cup. If you ask all the clubs that participated in this tournament today, I'm sure they would all like to have this tournament again. So basically that's the best answer," Wenger told reporters.
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Mr Wenger supports FIFA's idea of holding the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. |
Wenger also pointed to the unexpectedly high attendances as evidence of the tournament's success, adding: "The key question is whether the fans like it. The attendances were low, but they were much higher. That's where the answer lies."
The tournament has provided FIFA with a testing ground ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will be played across North America. Wenger acknowledged that the summer heat in the United States posed challenges, but said FIFA had learned valuable lessons in addressing these issues. "The heat in some games was a problem," Wenger admitted. "We tried to overcome it by cooling the pitch and watering the pitch during the break. We learned a lot from that."
He singled out Orlando as one of the venues with difficult pitch conditions, although he praised the overall quality of the natural grass pitches. He said Philadelphia's pitches would set the standard for future tournaments in the United States.
Looking ahead, Wenger said FIFA is considering using covered stadiums in cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles and Houston to host early matches in next year's tournaments. He revealed that FIFA analysts have studied the impact of heat on player performance and found that temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius affect high-speed running and sprinting more than total distance covered.
"For sure next year there will be more covered stadiums because we have to comply with the television schedule. We are learning to be better prepared to deal with these conditions," Wenger said.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will conclude on Sunday, with the final between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Watch FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ live and exclusively in Vietnam on FPT Play, with the support of Budweiser - Global Sponsor of the tournament and Samsung AI TV brand, visit http://fptplay.vn
Source: https://tienphong.vn/arsene-wenger-phan-bac-kich-liet-y-kien-cua-klopp-ve-fifa-club-world-cup-post1759278.tpo
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