Thousands of fans clad in blue and black flocked through the streets of Atlanta on Monday, June 16, heading towards Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the site of a first-round match in the newly reimagined FIFA Club World Cup. The match, between the English Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club and American MLS club Los Angeles FC, was the first of six matches slated to be held in Atlanta before the final in New York on July 13.
Soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, has increased the number of clubs in the competition from 7 to 32, all competing to be crowned champions of the world. The tournament is being hosted by the United States, where several stadiums across the country are welcoming clubs from every inhabited continent.
Previous iterations of the tournament were held annually between the sole winners of each of the six regional confederations’ international club competitions, plus a club from the host country. However, as the number of clubs in the competition increased, FIFA changed the competition to be held every four years.
FIFA is also offering a massive $1 billion prize pool, split between clubs based on performance and participation. European teams receive a minimum of $12.81 million, and South American teams receive $15.21 million just for showing up to the competition. Additionally, The Athletic has reported that FIFA has spent over $50 million on marketing to boost ticket sales.
The competition has never been a big presence in world football, with clubs and fans typically viewing it as more of an additional bonus competition after beating their continental rivals, but with these massive changes to the competition and enormous prize pool, it seems that FIFA aims to remake the competition’s reputation and cement it as the premier club competition in the world. FIFA’s objective, however, is far from easy to achieve.
The new competition format has faced criticism from fans, players and managers alike. One of the biggest criticisms of the tournament is that it adds 63 matches to an already crowded competition calendar.
For European teams, the competition is set at the end of their season, where most compete in three national competitions (national league, national cup and league cup) as well as European competition that can last until the end of May. For several North and South American clubs, the problem can be even worse, as the competition is placed right in the middle of their national season, not to mention the international break immediately preceding the competition, during which many of the top players are called up to represent their nations.
This schedule is grueling for players and takes away from the training time that the clubs’ national rivals are currently enjoying, potentially harming their current or upcoming season.
“I think it will have a huge impact, and it will give Liverpool and Arsenal a huge advantage in the next season to not be there,” said Thomas Tuchel, the English national team manager, on how the two English teams, Chelsea and Manchester City, will be affected by the competition.
Perhaps more concerning for FIFA is the low fan adoption of the tournament. At the match last Monday, only 22,137 seats of Mercedes-Benz’s 71,000 capacity were filled, and the lack of attendance is not just in Atlanta. According to the BBC, over 400,000 seats have been left empty so far at Club World Cup matches across the country.
Some matches, however, have been able to draw large crowds, including the match between European heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, as well as the opening match between Inter Miami and Al Ahly. Matches featuring Mexican and South American teams have also had higher attendance, potentially indicating more investment from these clubs, who feel like they have something to prove against favored European clubs. Still, stadiums struggle to reach capacity at any of these games.
Despite the poor attendance and controversy, the match last Monday between Chelsea and LAFC was a decent showing from both teams, but perhaps not the superbly dominating performance many would have expected from Chelsea.
The first 30 minutes of the match saw Chelsea hold on to the bulk of possession and force a few hasty saves from ex-Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was once again under pressure from old rivals. The scoring opened after Cole Palmer connected with Nicolas Jackson on the halfway line, who himself played a precise pass toward Pedro Neto to beat LAFC left-back Ryan Hollingshead. Neto navigated past defenders sliding in and chose to smash it in the bottom right corner instead of passing to Marc Cucurella waiting at the far post. Chelsea 1, LAFC 0.
Despite going down, the outnumbered LAFC supporters remained in full voice throughout the match, with Chelsea unable to quiet them. Even with the proliferation of blue jerseys, Chelsea fans remained relatively quiet throughout the match.
The first half culminated in Chelsea racking up all but 1 of the 10 shots of the match. In response, LAFC head coach Steven Cherundolo replaced striker Jeremy Ebobisse with former Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud, and Chelsea brought on Malo Gusto and Enzo Fernández.
LAFC were able to put up a bit more offense in the second half with their first clean-cut attempt on goal in the 57th minute, which Robert Sánchez was forced to kick away. In the 64th minute, Chelsea brought on their newly acquired signing, Liam Delap, who was met with much anticipation from the crowd, and he quickly justified his £30 million fee.
In the 79th minute, Palmer played Delap through on the right wing, who turned and played an arching cross towards Fernández. Fernández took a touch under pressure before poking it past Lloris. Chelsea 2, LAFC 0.
LAFC was able to rebound with a couple of excellent attempts, including in the 81st minute when Denis Bouanga made contact with Malo Gusto inside the penalty box in front of the LAFC supporters, eliciting shouts for a penalty, but VAR quickly checked and cleared the play.
Chelsea held on to their 2-0 lead until full-time, earning three valuable points to draw level with Brazilian side Flamengo in Group D of the competition. The match itself was emblematic of the tournament as a whole. Both sides had moments of quality, but ultimately, there wasn’t much that got fans out of their seats.
Chelsea went on to lose 3-1 in a second-half collapse to Flamengo in their second match, which saw the Brazilian side secure their place in the knockout stage, while LAFC lost 1-0 to Tunisian side Espérance, knocking LAFC out of the competition.
These results set up an enticing final round in Group D, where Espérance takes on Chelsea on Tuesday, June 24, both sides even on three points. It must be said: Chelsea is the favorite, but after their collapse against Flamengo, they will need to bounce back in this lose-and-go-home battle.