FIFA president Gianni Infantino has hailed the Membership World Cup as “probably the most succesful competitors on this planet”, regardless of widespread critcism of the event.
Infantino, who has led world soccer’s governing physique since 2016, claims the newly-expanded summer season competitors has generated greater than $2bn (£1.5bn) in income, which he says is price “$33m (£24m) per match”.
Because of this, Infantino says, he believes it has been a “big success”, including that “the golden period of worldwide membership soccer has began”.
The brand new 32-team event held in the US has attracted loads of criticism, with former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp lamenting it as “the worst concept ever applied in soccer”.
Many have critiqued the dearth of depth in video games, evaluating them to glorified pre-season friendlies, whereas groups have needed to take care of excessive climate situations and poor high quality pitches. Common empty seats at video games have additionally been some extent of criticism for the event.
However talking at Trump Tower in New York on the eve of Sunday’s ultimate between Chelsea and Paris St-Germain (20:00 BST), Infantino mentioned: “The golden period of worldwide membership soccer has began.
“We will say undoubtedly that this Fifa Membership World Cup has been an enormous, big, big success. After all, there are quite a lot of positives, some negatives.
“We respect everybody’s opinion. It has been profitable. We now have had over 2.5 million within the stadium. That’s round 40,000 spectators per match – there is no such thing as a league on this planet with that quantity, besides the Premier League which, after all, has dwelling groups and these are impartial stadiums.
“We heard financially it will not work however I can say we generated over $2bn in revenues with this competitors. We earned on common $33m per match. There isn’t any different cup competitors on this planet that comes near $33m per match.
“It’s already probably the most profitable membership competitors on this planet with all totally different measurements.”
World Cup 2026: Coated stadiums for use
The Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, which can host Sunday’s ultimate, has seen temperatures as excessive as 38C in current days.
Infantino has admitted excessive temperatures are “undoubtedly a difficulty” after Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez referred to as on FIFA to do extra to guard participant welfare and says stadiums will doubtless be lined within the day at subsequent summer season’s World Cup.
“After all, the warmth is unquestionably a difficulty,” mentioned Infantino. “It’s a difficulty all over the world. I bear in mind it was the identical within the Olympics in Paris and in different soccer video games.
“The situations want cooling breaks, watering the pitch and seeing how we will do issues higher.
“However now we have stadiums in America which are lined and one in Canada in Vancouver which is roofed, and we will certainly use these stadiums extra in the course of the day.”
