Mbappe will not have a break for 3 consecutive summers - Photo: Reuters
That could be a turning point for club football, when stars have almost no time to rest.
Can't complain
Take an example: Mbappe spent the summer of 2024 playing for the Euros for France. This summer, he will compete in the FIFA Club World Cup - the new version of FIFA - for Real Madrid. And next summer, it will be the World Cup with France.
Combined with a club season lasting nearly 10 months, along with friendly tours, the French superstar has to play continuously for 3 years without rest, without even a full month to recover his fitness.
But Mbappe has to accept it, because interspersed among the traditional tournaments are additional tournaments created to foster the financial interests of clubs and national teams. The FIFA Club World Cup has a staggering total prize money: 1 billion USD. Of which, the champion team can receive up to 125 million USD and European clubs participating in the tournament can receive 20 - 40 million USD just for participating in the competition (and will receive more if they go far in the tournament).
If players and coaches have always criticized national tournaments (like the UEFA Nations League) because they think these tournaments are exhausting, they have to keep quiet about the FIFA Club World Cup. Simply because the financial benefits are too great.
The new version of the FIFA Club World Cup is almost an inevitable result of the sports trend of recent years. It is also FIFA's response to the Super League - a project nurtured by the alliance of leading clubs (with Real Madrid and Barca as the core).
The main target of the Super League's attack is UEFA, but FIFA is also not immune to public pressure. They need to create "regular" tournaments to avoid falling behind the ever-evolving sports world.
FIDE once faced a storm of criticism stirred up by Magnus Carlsen - Photo: REUTERS
Constant innovation
That is what the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) and FIDE (International Chess Federation) are facing. Over the past 2 years, FIDE has faced a storm of criticism stirred up by Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian "Chess King" and many other players have criticized the chess world's leading body for only knowing how to "squeeze dry" players through the tournaments they organize.
As a result, Carlsen teamed up with a large company to organize the famous Chess 360 (also known as Random Chess) tournament to compete with FIDE. Of course, Carlsen's tournament system is still young, but it is starting to threaten FIDE, breaking their monopoly.
Unlike the severe conflicts in the chess world, the relationship between the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) and the Grand Slam Track (a newly established tournament system) is still quite harmonious. The Grand Slam Track is a newly established tournament system organized by former Olympic champion Michael Jackson.
Unlike traditional track and field events, the Grand Slam Track focuses on running events ranging from 100m to 5,000m. It comes with a huge prize fund, with a total prize money of more than 3 million USD for each tournament (there will be 4 tournaments in 2025). The winner of each event will receive a prize money of up to 100,000 USD. This figure is one and a half times higher than the prize from a world gold medal.
Before chess and athletics, golf faced a war when LIV Golf - backed by Saudi Arabia - faced off with the mainstream PGA Tour, before joining forces in 2023. And years before that, basketball led the way when the league of Europe's top clubs split from FIBA (International Basketball Federation) to form its own league. Despite constant attacks from FIBA, the tournament has stood strong for more than 20 years.
The constant revolutions in bonuses, sponsorships, competition formats... make sports more and more strange but also more and more attractive.
FIFA is promising to revolutionize prize money with the FIFA Club World Cup. In addition to a record-breaking $1 billion prize pool distributed to the 32 participating teams, President Gianni Infantino has promised to inject an additional $250 million into a global development program for clubs around the world.
Of the $1 billion in prize money, $525 million will be allocated for participation. European teams will receive $13 million to $38 million (depending on the size of the club); South American teams will receive $15.2 million; and Asia, Africa and North and Central America will receive $9.5 million.
The remaining $475 million is for performance, with the champion receiving $40 million, runner-up receiving $30 million... The winning team also receives $2 million per match.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lang-the-thao-doi-moi-tung-ngay-20250414104820452.htm
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