Manchester City and Chelsea are set to compete in the revamped Club World Cup next summer, a competition that will involve 32 of the best teams on the planet
Simon Jordan has defended FIFA for ordering Manchester City and Chelsea to play their top players during next year’s Club World Cup – despite the backlash surrounding the amount of fixtures.
FIFA’s new prime club competition – the Club World Cup – will grace the global stage in June and July 2025, when 32 of the leading teams on the planet compete in the USA for the inaugural edition. The tournament – like every other year – will bring together the best teams from the six international confederations.
Each team has to play three group matches, with the top two from each group going into the last 16. A direct single match knockout will then determine every game from there to the final, like the traditional World Cup and European Championship format, though there is no third-place play-off scheduled.
There has been some concern raised over whether this competition should go ahead due to the amount of matches, especially for the 12 European teams competing. Despite this, City, Chelsea and the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Benfica and Borussia Dortmund have agreed to take part.
And ex-Crystal Palace owner Jordan has stuck up for FIFA and claimed that teams involved – including City and Chelsea – shouldn’t just be able to get their own way every time.
“I suspect they’re saying we wanna see the first-team players available befitting of a tournament that is going to pay you £60m,” Jordan told talkSPORT. “You’re get what you get in the Champions League from half the amount of games. If you win the Champions League you get about £120m, if you play seven games in this tournament to win it – not the 17 for the Champions League – and get £60m.
“Are they instructed to play in this tournament or are they invited? They’re invited, so the clubs have a choice if they wish to participate and then the clubs have a choice with the contracts they have with players about how many games these players take.
“They’re saying make available your first-team squad – of course you would. You can’t have it always. You can’t have all of the upside.”
Jordan added: “We heard the drivel from Pep Guardiola about it being like the NBA, except the NBA gets a four-month break. Okay, have a four-month break then, then compress 72 fixtures into eight months and see how you get on with that.
“You can’t stick your kids out in a Club World Cup and expect £60m. What I do think should be allowed is bigger squads. I do think PSR is creating challenges that are not able to be met.
“I think they [City and Chelsea] will get on with it. Well, Pep won’t get on with it because he’s got a big power base, maybe Maresca will start flapping his trap once he establishes himself as a so-called Premier League manager, which he’s yet to do.”
“The players can sit down with the clubs and say ‘I’m gonna sign a contract that allows me to play only 50 or 60 games a season, and it is up to the club which are those 50 or 60 games, but that is all I’m gonna play’.
“The players of course won’t do that because they know it will have some consequences to them financially. ‘How much are we getting of the £60m? On average about 90 percent. ‘Okay, we’ll have that but do we have to play the games?’ Erm, yeah, you can’t just have the money without the games.”
