The FIFA Club World Cup tournament is perhaps one of the most unpopular tournaments to have ever been introduced to the schedule.
Whilst the format of the best teams from each of the continents – i.e. the team that win their respective Champions League tournaments – featuring, on paper, it looks a rather attractive competition. However, most teams will never ever get to compete in it and when they do, it is not that high on a list of priorities.
Perhaps the traditional December slate that it finds itself scheduled in each year is one reason as to why it is not popular, as it is in the middle of the campaign for European clubs, whilst others simply do not appear to be strong enough to compete.
In fact, it is not just football clubs that are not too happy with the Club World Cup, as FIFA have also voiced their displeasure with the tournament as well in recent times.
However, that has not stopped the competition from being scheduled to take place in 2021. Not once, though, but twice!
Considering that the 2021 schedule for football will already be hugely crowded because of the issues the world faced in 2020, it would not have been a surprise to have seen some form of competitive football to be scrapped.
But, with money likely a key driver, the Club World Cup has been scheduled to take place twice next year with the first edition being played in February in Qatar before being played once again in December in Japan, where it is held traditionally.
This will surely cause a number of logistical problems, though, as there will be some difficulty in making sure that each of the football confederations will be ready for the tournament. In hindsight, more football could be very much welcomed by fans and those bettors that use sites such as USAbetting to mix two of their pastimes together.
CONMEBOL are perhaps the one confederation that will find it difficult to meet the February date, as their 2020 final is currently scheduled to take place 23 January 2021, this leaving a week or so before the start of the Club World Cup at the beginning of February. In addition, would they be able to complete a full Copa Libertadores by December to qualify another team for that tournament, as well?
Indeed, they are not the only confederation to have potential problems with it, though. The Asian Football Confederation are trying to finish their 2020 Asian Champions League in quick fashion, but will they be able to do it again for the next season, especially when Asian nations have their final FIFA World Cup group stage qualifying matches?
CONCACAF are already trying to get as much as they can out of the current schedules available, as they have already provided the go-ahead for nations to complete triple match international weekends next year to try and get their 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers done in time. Due to this, they have had to expand their own Champions League schedules already, whilst also having to expand the Gold Cup tournament.
Considering it is already hard to like the Club World Cup tournament when it takes place in December, the addition of another one this February just appears rather unwanted and, unfortunately, reaks of commercial gain more than anything else.
