The 'mistake' that is Fifa's Club World Cup looms large. But Will it even happen?

This is the one thing the former Fifa president Sepp Blatter admits he should not have done: create the Fifa Club World Cup.

- Philippe Auclair

"It was a mistake," he told the Swiss daily 24 heures last month. "Fifa must concern itself with national federations, not clubs." Yet this "mistake" is a part of Blatter's legacy that his successor, Gianni Infantino, had no hesitation to embrace. As early as 2016 Infantino, nine months after his election, had proposed an expanded version to replace the old format, which, since 2005, had involved seven teams the six continental champions plus a representative of the host country - every December, over a period of 10 days. "We need to make the Club World Cup more interesting for teams, and also for fans around the world," he said. "That will attract more sponsors and television companies from around the world." The glacial reception his proposal received from Uefa, which threatened a walk-out, caused Infantino to revise his blueprint. One year later he suggested that 24 teams should participate in the competition, which would take the place of the Confederations Cup from 2021. Then Covid struck, the plan was abandoned, and next year a four-week, 32-team tournament will take place from 15 June to 13 July, "an unforgettable celebration of our game that will revolutionise club football", in Infantino's words. But will it even happen? Seven months from the opening game in Miami, the sponsors and television companies that Infantino believed would queue up remain unconvinced. Only one commercial partner has been found, which can hardly be considered "new": the Chinese electronics group Hisense, a Fifa sponsor since the 2018 World Cup. Others are biding their time, and won't commit until they know which broadcasters will cover the event, and how; but those broadcasters haven't committed either. Fifa's ambition was to make its revamped competition its second most lucrative event after the men's World Cup, targeti