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Fifa hailing of Club World Cup 'a fiction' says player union
The Island
|July 15, 2025
Fifa's hailing of its Club World Cup has been labelled "nothing more than a fiction" by the president of leading players' global union Fifpro.
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In a scathing statement, Sergio Marchi appeared to compare the world governing body's president Gianni Infantino to the Roman emperor Nero.
And he also claimed Fifa "chose to continue increasing its revenue at the expense of the players' bodies and health".
It comes after BBC Sport learned that Fifpro was not invited to a key meeting on player welfare that Infantino held on the eve of the Club World Cup final with representatives from other unions.
Last year, amid a backlash over the expansion of the Club World Cup, Fifpro filed a legal complaint against Fifa, claiming it had abused its role under European competition law by adding more pressure to the fixture schedule.
Fifa has denied the claims, and at the weekend Infantino called the tournament "the most successful club competition in the world".
This story is from the July 15, 2025 edition of The Island.
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