Not one for the neutrals

FIFA’s new baby – the much expanded and extended Club World Cup (CWC) – kicks off next weekend in the US with a whopping 32 teams from every corner of the globe taking part. But I am a long way from being convinced it will be a success with the viewing masses.

True, there isn’t much else going on to keep us football fans occupied for the next few weeks. And that will work in FIFA’s favour as those addicted to the sport look for any bit of action they can get during this closed season.

Yet I can’t shake off the feeling that football’s governing body, in their desperation to make more money, has massively misread the room on this one.

At face value the tournament isn’t an entirely bad idea. Take an otherwise meaningless competition, dress it up in World Cup clothing and convert it in into a sort of planet-wide search for a global champion.

However, that fails to take into account a key factor that will, in my mind, make this new tournament widely unwatchable: the World Cup’s magic comes from the fact that it involves countries, not clubs.

No matter who you support at domestic level, you can all come together to support your country in a tournament. And if your country isn’t represented it doesn’t feel overly disloyal to pick another country or just sit back and enjoy the football party as a whole.

But club-level football is far more partisan. You aren’t going to pick another club to support in a tournament like this. How many Aston Villa supporters are going to be rooting for Manchester City? How many Lyon fans are going to get behind Paris Saint-Germain?

I suppose there are some who will tune in to certain games in the hope of seeing particular teams lose. But that’s rather petty, and even the most small-minded individual will soon tire of that.

FIFA have played a good card by making the prize money on offer a rather eye-watering figure of nearly a billion euros, with the winning club taking home a rather chunky bonus of close to €100 million – worth a few weeks of anyone’s time.

But again, the only people who will really care about that are the people who own the clubs and, to a much lesser degree, the supporters of the participating teams.

Which means, all told, there is very little in the CWC for the neutrals. And it is the involvement and engagement of neutrals that makes the real World Cup special.

Of course, everything I am saying could be wrong. I often am when it comes to football predictions (as my editor happily pointed out when the Barclays Premier League came to its conclusion). Maybe the public will embrace the Club World Cup with open arms.

However, I believe for most of us it will be one of those things you know is happening in the background but don’t care enough about to bother watching. That might change towards the end when only the big European clubs are left (come on, you know that’s how it will pan out!).

But even then, it will take a lot of effort for us neutrals to find anything approaching genuine interest in this new, money-centric, self-indulgent, FIFA abomination.

As one of the first clubs in Europe to be owned by a country, PSG have been instrumental in distorting the modern game

‘QSG’ win the trophy they craved

As Champions League finals go, that was a pretty comprehensive mauling.

It was so one-sided, had the previous Saturday’s clash been a boxing match, the referee would probably have stopped it early. Or Simone Inzaghi himself would have thrown in the towel to save his lads further embarrassment.

Not many of us saw the massacre coming. PSG were always going to be favourites and Inter the undisputed underdogs, But 5-0? Wow!

In the aftermath of the game there were plenty of commentators and pundits rushing to heap praise on the French club for finally achieving their dream of becoming champions of Europe. That’s one bandwagon I won’t be jumping on.

While I am extremely pleased for Luis Enrique, who deserves some proper joy after the personal heartache he has endured in the past, I have not a single iota of happiness for PSG as a club.

This is, after all, more of a victory for Qatar than it is for a French team. Maybe they should be renamed Qatar Saint-Germain (QSG) to improve the accuracy.

As one of the first clubs in Europe to be owned by a country, PSG have been instrumental in distorting the modern game. Their vast wealth has allowed them to outrageously dominate French domestic football for more than a decade.

Before the Qataris took over in 2012 the club had won just two titles in its 42 years of existence. Since then, they have won 11 out of the 13 titles on offer, essentially leaving the rest of French football to fight for scraps and leftovers.

And frankly that disgusts me!

The only saving grace, up until now, is that they hadn’t been able to buy Europe’s biggest prize. But that box has now been ticked too.

As I said, I have a lot of respect for the manager and nothing against the players either. And my beef certainly isn’t with the club’s supporters, who can hardly be held responsible for who their owners are.

But don’t expect me to share in this pathetic outpouring of joy for the owners themselves. They, and PSG, go against everything I believe football needs to be.

Hell-bent on getting Trent

Real Madrid have apparently paid Liverpool a hefty chunk to sign Trent Alexander Arnold a month early.

The England defender’s contract at Anfield ran until the end of June and he was already set to make the Bernabeu his new home from July 1.

But, like an excited child with Christmas approaching, Real decided they couldn’t wait another month to open their right-back-shaped present... and coughed up €10 million to get him on board earlier.

Sounds like a bit of a waste of money, probably around €350-€400k a day in fact, just to have him dressed in white during June.

But the reality is the club is trying to make a silk purse out of their pig’s ear of a season and are desperate to win the Club World Cup.

And if they do, with that €100 million on offer to the winners, the extra cost of having Trent in place now could turn out to be money very well spent.

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