Lessons for FIFA

After the first two matches of the group stage, Al Hilal is the only representative from Asia and Africa to have delivered relatively positive performances.

Al Ain FC (left) has left fans feeling sorry for themselves due to their weakness - Photo: Reuters

FIFA allocated 4 slots to Asia, 4 slots to Africa, and added one more slot, which is essentially a "great discount" for Oceania. And that is a serious drawback of the FIFA Club World Cup.

For Auckland City, bringing an amateur team to this football tournament was truly outrageous. There was no fairy tale involved, even though the New Zealand players held out for the first 45 minutes against Benfica, they ultimately lost 6-0. Auckland City is not to blame; FIFA is.

Auckland City's performance was expected. But it's hard to believe that Asian champions Al Ain played just as poorly. In their first match, they lost 0-5 to Juventus, and then went on to lose 6-0 to Man City in their second game.

Notably, Al Ain is a very wealthy club in the UAE. They boast more than 10 foreign players from Europe and South America. They were the champions of the AFC Champions League in the 2023-2024 season. Therefore, it's hard to believe that Al Ain could have lost form to such an extent.

But is it because Al Ain has lost its way, or simply because that's their level? Despite having many foreign players, Al Ain only possesses one name familiar to football fans worldwide : goalkeeper Rui Patricio. The rest are all players of third-rate European or South American football.

While not suffering a crushing defeat like Al Ain, the two teams representing South Korea and Japan also failed to secure any points after the first two matches. Even Al Hilal, despite playing resiliently to draw with Real Madrid, quickly revealed their weaknesses by failing to beat Salzburg in the following round.

Even the notoriously wild and unpredictable African representatives behaved quite well in the FIFA Club World Cup. They were only slightly better than the much weaker teams from Asia or the US. Otherwise, they failed to make any impression when facing European teams.

If FIFA wants the FIFA Club World Cup to become a truly captivating event, it needs to be decisive in allocating qualifying spots to deserving teams. Consequently, only South American teams can truly compete with European clubs.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bai-hoc-cho-fifa-20250624082113674.htm