'Becoming first winners could be a game-changer'

FORMER Manchester City midfielder Michael Brown reckons Pep Guardiola will be desperate to win the new-look Club World Cup because he loves to make history.

- BY SIMON MULLOCK

But for City's owners, and the executives who have turned the club into the Premier League's most dominant force, he believes the incentive for glory over the next month runs much deeper.

Brown, who will be in the United States working as an expert summariser for the tournament's official broadcaster DAZN, estimates that becoming the first world champions of the 32-club competition in its new format can catapult City into a sphere only occupied by the biggest teams on the planet.

And he recognises the £116million that City have spent already this summer to add Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri to Guardiola's squad, as an emphatic statement of intent.

Brown said: "Critics have questioned why FIFA have expanded the Club World Cup - but the bottom line is that the tournament will give all the clubs involved a truly global audience.