The Club World Cup 2025 shows sharing the stage is the future of global sport

Among other things, collaborative multi-host formats also allow for widespread sharing of knowledge and opportunities for innovation.

- David Cook and Christopher Pich

Before it kicked off, the all-new revamped and expanded men's 2025 FIFA Club World Cup had already attracted controversy.

Some think even more football matches at the end of a long season pose a risk to player welfare. Others are concerned about a lack of fan engagement.

But aside from these issues, the tournament, which features 32 clubs from around the world, provides fresh evidence of a new model emerging in global sport.

This event, which is being staged in 12 different cities across the US, is the latest experiment in "polycentric" hosting, where multiple locations collaborate as destinations for international sporting events.

The next men's FIFA World Cup in 2026 will take place across the US, Canada and Mexico. Four years later, the event will be spread across different continents, starting in South America, before moving to Europe and Africa. In between, the men's Euros of 2028 will be co-hosted by Britain and Ireland.

The trend is not limited to football. The 2026 Winter Olympics is being shared in Italy between Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The Commonwealth Games are also moving towards a more pragmatic model of hosting.

Our research, which focused on the men's Euro 2020 tournament (delayed by Covid-19 and held in 2021), suggests that polycentric hosting has many advantages.

Spanning 11 European countries, Euro 2020 was conceived as a celebration of the tournament's 60th anniversary.