Back of the Net!

Manchester United are taking part in the FIFA Club World Cup currently, putting their English Premier League fixtures on hold for the time being while they attend the competition… in Japan.

On Sunday the Champions League European Cup holders take on Ecuador’s Liga de Quito in what is likely to be another fascinating match following the recent goal fest against Japan’s Gamba Osaka.

It’s a stripped-down competition this time around - but it still seems to me that the FIFA Club World Cup is nothing more than a white elephant, a televisual cash in that is conveniently scheduled in the break in the Champions League.

However among the goal fests and prestigious ties, someone has missed one key point:

• Circumnavigating the globe to take part in a football competition is insane.

Interestingly, this is the same nonsensical journey that would need to take place if the English Premier League introduced another match and held it in Japan as per the idea mooted some months ago and thankfully dismissed as “What have you been sniffing?”

There are a number of reasons why the FIFA Club World Cup is a waste of everyone’s time, the players included.  Not least is the financial outlay in shipping teams from around the World to one location for a week.  In the current financial climate, this is hardly a public relations winner.

Previous instances of the competition have been cancelled due to economic factors - and that was before the current downturn began!  How exactly does FIFA hope to carry this competition on annually given those factors?

More to the point - WHY?  It seems to me that the FIFA Club World Cup is nothing more than a junket, with tickets priced for high earners and jet setters.  What sort of average club fan can afford to travel to Japan to watch their team play up to three matches?  At Christmas?

(Admittedly there are few Manchester United fans that one can describe as an “average club fan” who regularly attend Old Trafford these days, but trust me, they do exist.)

The FIFA Club World Cup is a poke in the eye for real football fans, and a bent over submission to pointless prestige.

Take the “bragging rights” angle - who on earth is anyone who wins the “best club in the world trophy” going to brag against, other than their immediate neighbours?

It’s quite obvious that whenever local or fierce rivals play each other that the in-stadium singing on the terraces makes it quite clear that trophies don’t matter as much as the passion of the fans.

The same fans that are largely absent from the FIFA Club World Cup.

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