FIFA president Gianni Infantino has announced plans to reformat and expand the current Club World Cup to make it more like its international counterpart in a move that could impact Liverpool.
In Qatar, where the 2022 World Cup is currently taking place, Infantino revealed the plans for a 32-team competition on Friday morning, claiming there will also be a similar setup for a Women's Club World Cup.
The reformed Club World Cup, which Infantino said would begin in 2025, had been slated to begin in China in 2021 but was kicked into touch owing to the impacts of the pandemic. But with annual FIFA revenues set to balloon from $7.5bn (£6.15bn) to $11bn (£9bn) over the next four-year cycle leading up to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, the revamped competition is set to help aid that trajectory.
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The news may well be welcomed by Premier League owners of the so-called 'big six' , including Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group, who have been seeking ways to find more ways to leverage their global appeal.
Project Big Picture, a plan that FSG chief John W. Henry had been key to that involved the Premier League handing over more cash to the English Football League in return for the end of competitions such as the League Cup and Community Shield to enable the big clubs to host more exhibition games abroad, ended in failure, much to the dismay of the Liverpool principal owner and other big six chiefs.
The current format consists of a seven-team tournament featuring the winners of the six continental confederations. It has been a competition that has struggled with a level of indifference from football fans globally with regards to its appeal, with the idea of a revamped and expanded team competition to drive more interest and generate greater commercial and media revenues.
For the likes of FSG, who have opened themselves up to expressions of interest in a full sale of their shareholding while considering avenues of minority investment in the team as they mull their long term options, the news may well be welcomed. The chance to take the club and the brand to a global level with greater media and commercial rights attached to it would help boost revenues in the kind of way it was hoped that mini global tournaments or exhibition matches around the world would have done had Project Big Picture been successful.
Quite where it fits in with an already hectic football calendar, one that Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has criticised on more than one occasion, remains to be seen. If the Reds were fighting on all fronts with the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup it remains tough to see how a 32-team tournament would be able to be squeezed in to such a schedule should, of course, they qualify to compete in it in the first place.
But a day after the European Super League plans suffered a major blow following the recommendations of the Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, a new competition that would present the chance for some greater revenue and to allow the biggest clubs to leverage their global appeal and reach their fans around the world will likely be well received among the hierarchy of the biggest clubs.
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