After the final of the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan this weekend, Corinthians of Brazil have been crowned the best team in the world.
“The World Cup Champions” is a title to be revered and prized by all national teams, the champions of a tournament that makes the whole world stop and stand still, a true honour. The title of “Club World Cup Champions” brings with it none of the prestige of its international equivalent; it stirs none of the same reverence or the respect. Corinthians are obviously a very skilled footballing unit, but I think we can all agree that they’re not the best team on the planet.
The FIFA Club World Cup almost qualifies itself as a non-event, I only bothered to wake up for the second half myself! But it got me thinking, I wouldn’t miss a second of the World Cup final regardless of who was playing, so why do I and so many others, care so little for this event? Why does it pass by most years without causing as much as a ripple on the surface of the national consciousness? The globalisation of world football is set to continue its curve of exponential growth and using this trend there are some ways that this tournament could become a genuine point of excitement on the footballing calendar.
It begins with the almost impossible rearrangement of the structuring of the Brazilian League, at the moment the league runs from May until December, putting them at odds with the timescales of much of the rest of the world, including neighbours Argentina. A move to re-align the leagues of the world that aren’t in sync with the schedule of the greater majority would mean that a regular tournament could be put in place.
If the World Cup or the Euros rolled by every single year it would not be long before they started to lose their sparkle, the special buzz that descends upon the nation each time they roll around. In the same way, the FIFA Club World Cup has never really managed to find its place within the hearts of those who love football. Therefore staging the tournament once every four years would allow time for it to become a special tournament rather than an annual throwaway.
By holding the tournament every four years it allows time for the entrants to be determined. The Champions League, or equivalent pan-continental tournament occurs every year and supplies the entrant to the FIFA Club World Cup for each continent. Over the course of four years there could be four entrants determined by winners, or runners up in the case of consecutive winners. The entrants could then be seeded and put into groups in the same way the World Cup is structured; games could then take place over the course of a summer on which the World Cup or Euro/Other Continental cup does not fall.
It’s hard to condense solutions to such a complex logistical problem into a readable article, let alone fathoming the difficulties faced by football’s governing bodies in ever changing the tournament for the better. Unfortunately it seems as though the tournament will be left wanting for the time being, which is a great shame considering the potential the idea of a club being the ‘Best in the World’ holds.
Until then we will have to be content with understanding that it is not Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan or Manchester United, but Corinthians who are the FIFA Club World Cup Champions and thus the ‘best’ football team in the world.
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Click to ClaimJack produces topical blogs for Howtobet4free tackling the key issues in the world of sport. Jack also publishes articles for a number of publications each week, and can be found on Twitter by following @JWinterr.
