Soccer’s $1 Billion American Experiment Finally Reaches Its End

MetLife Stadium is set to host the final of the Club World Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea on Sunday.

All over Europe this week, soccer players from the biggest clubs in the game began ambling back to work ahead of the new season.

But for a couple of clubs roasting in New Jersey, last season is still in its final throes. For Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, the longest campaigns they can remember can’t come to an end until they play out the final of the Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

Neither club truly expected to be here a year ago and the whole exercise has been slightly bewildering: a global tournament, invented from whole cloth by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, with a month of matches in the middle of the summer and more than $1 billion on the line. Simply for reaching the final, PSG and Chelsea can both expect to take home more than $100 million in prize money.

“We are almost there,” said PSG manager Luis Enrique, who has already led the club to the French league, cup, and Champions League trophies this year. “We want to make history in our club—and then take our holidays.”

Under normal circumstances, PSG would have won the Champions League in May and sent its players on their way. Instead, most went off for a couple of games with their national teams before reporting back to Paris for an adventure that has taken them to Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, and New York.

Paris St Germain’s Senny Mayulu in action with Real Madrid’s Eder Militao.

Strictly speaking, the objective the whole time was to confirm what most soccer fans already knew: Being the best soccer team in Europe tends to mean that you are also the best soccer team on the planet.

But for the sport’s world governing body, which made the matches free-to-air and was scrambling to drum up interest in the tournament until last month’s opening kickoff in Miami, there was always much more at stake than what happened on the field.

This sprawling event held across America also helped FIFA further ingratiate itself to the Trump White House, one year out from next summer’s World Cup for national teams. Infantino hasn’t only made several visits to the Oval Office to show off the Club World Cup’s enormous gold trophy, he also announced this week that FIFA was opening a New York office—inside Trump Tower.

“To be global, you have to be local, you have to be everywhere, so we have to be in New York,” Infantino said at a ceremony with Eric Trump.

“On behalf of myself, on behalf of New York, on behalf of the Trump Organization and everybody that works in this building—we love you,” Trump replied.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino made several visits to the Oval Office to show off the Club World Cup’s enormous gold trophy.

Not everyone felt quite as enthusiastic about goings-on inside the Club World Cup stadiums. More than 2.2 million fans attended the 60 games before the semifinals, according to FIFA, for an average attendance of around 37,000. But inside cavernous buildings that normally house NFL teams, empty seats were a recurring theme. At venues such as Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, organizers closed off entire sections simply because tickets weren’t selling. And even ahead of some knockout games, ticket prices collapsed to under $20.

The only matches that reliably kicked off in full, vibrant atmospheres were those featuring clubs from Brazil or Argentina. Supporters of Palmeiras, Fluminense, and Boca Juniors turned up in droves.

Even then, fans weren’t guaranteed an uninterrupted spectacle. Beyond heat that exceeded anything players experienced during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, summer storms in the U.S. caused at least half a dozen games to be suspended.

The most extreme situation came in the round of 16, when weather delays caused a match between Chelsea and Benfica at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. to take 4 hours and 39 minutes. The game was suspended in the 85th minute due to thunderstorms and didn’t resume for over two hours.

“I think it’s a joke, to be honest,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said. “It’s not football. It’s completely something new. I struggle to understand.”

More than 2.2 million fans attended the 60 games before the semifinals, according to FIFA, for an average attendance of around 37,000.

Charlotte isn’t among the venues hosting games next summer, but the situation doesn’t bode well for several World Cup host cities—including Miami, Philadelphia, and Kansas City—where the venues are outdoors, largely uncovered, and fans are exposed to the elements.

“I can understand if it’s security reasons but if you suspend seven or eight games then it’s probably not the right place to do the competition,” Maresca added. “In Europe how many games get suspended? Zero.”

None of which will slow down FIFA’s charge to conquer America or expand the tournament. Officials have already raised the possibility of inviting 48 teams to the next edition instead of 32, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Maybe some criticize it a little bit,” Infantino said. “But it’s something new, it’s something special.”