FIFA plans to expand Club World Cup to 48 teams and Auckland City responds

TPO - It is possible that in the next tournament, the FIFA Club World Cup will be expanded to 48 teams, in line with FIFA's goal of globalizing the tournament. However, along with that comes the question of the quality of the tournament, which Auckland City with its disastrous defeat to Bayern showed the downside.

A few days ago, FIFA revealed its intention to expand the FIFA Club World Cup to... 48 teams if the tournament is successful this summer. According to The Guardian, the world's most powerful football organization will hold negotiations with relevant parties as soon as the tournament ends, and will also lobby major European clubs not to qualify for this tournament.

In the 32-team version, FIFA controls the number of participating clubs from each country and continent. Therefore, Liverpool is forced to stay out of the competition, despite being one of the eight teams that did not win the Champions League in the 2021-2024 period but had the best record in the continent's most prestigious tournament. The best solution is to increase the size and number of teams. FIFA also believes that expanding the Club World Cup will be especially welcomed by European clubs, while also helping to raise the profile of the tournament based on their commercial strength and global popularity.

However, increasing the number of teams to 48 is not only beneficial for Europe. Other continents are also demanding more places. And this puts the overall quality of the tournament in doubt.

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is being billed as a mega event featuring the best clubs on the planet.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning (June 16), Auckland City - the representative of Oceania - was defeated 0-10 by Bayern. FIFA President Gianni Infantinto described the FIFA Club World Cup as showing the depth of global football, also gathering 32 of the best teams on the planet. But the reality was the opposite. In addition to the overwhelming score, the German champions also launched 31 shots - 17 of which were on target - compared to Auckland's 1 shot, while holding 72% of the ball possession.

In the past, it took 52 years for a team to score 10 goals in a World Cup match at the international level, when Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1 in 1982, but it only took two matches for a club to score 10 goals in the new FIFA Club World Cup.

Auckland City will have to console themselves that it is better to go down in history as a heavy defeat than not to be there at all. Despite the travel costs to the US being double their annual revenue, the New Zealand amateur team will receive at least $3.5 million in return for participating in the tournament.

Bayern shattered Auckland City's dream with a crushing 0-10 defeat.

According to Opta’s database, Bayern are ranked fourth in the world’s club rankings, while Auckland City are ranked 4,928th, 4,324 places below the second-worst team in the FIFA Club World Cup. To be fair, Auckland isn’t even the best team in Auckland, let alone New Zealand. The city’s professional team is Auckland FC, who play in Australia’s A-League.

Going into the tournament, Boca Juniors coach Miguel Angel Russo was sceptical about the real quality. "I don't want to put anyone down, but Bayern's opening match is against an amateur team. But everything is set, and we have to play," he said.

The disparity is stark. And the FIFA Club World Cup is not without its share of Auckland City-style mediocrity. There are ES Tunis, Wydad AC, Al Ain and Mamelodi Sundowns, with plenty of others to come up against when faced with more advanced football, from Europe or South America.

Auckland City players receive encouragement from fans.

FIFA deserves credit for its efforts to globalize its tournaments, giving more teams a chance to enjoy the biggest football festival on the planet. For example, at the upcoming 2026 World Cup, if it does not expand to 48 teams, it will be a long time before Uzbekistan or Jordan are immersed in their national festivities. Many clubs coming to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup share that excitement.

“We are proud of the players. It is a dream for a team at amateur level to play in this competition,” Auckland City coach Ivan Vicelich said after the 10-0 defeat, noting that some of his players had to take time off work to be in the US. “The players gave their all and gave their best in the game.”

But as FIFA moves towards globalisation, it is hard to demand quality. There will be more lopsided results, or more boring 0-0s. And expanding to 48 teams will increase the lopsidedness, not reduce it. It is a conundrum.

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

Thanh Hai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/fifa-lai-co-y-dinh-mo-rong-club-world-cup-len-48-doi-va-loi-dap-tra-tu-auckland-city-post1751663.tpo