The 32-team Club World Cup opens tomorrow: behind the feast of the giants, but there are mixed blessings?

Written by Han Bing The 32-team version of the Club World Cup, promoted by Infantino, will be unveiled on Sunday morning Beijing time. The new Champions League champion Grand Paris, the traditional European giants Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern, Chelsea, Juventus, Inter, Dort, Atletico Madrid, as well as South American giants such as River Plate, Boca, Flamengo, Palmeiras and other giants have all been shortlisted, which can be called a feast for giants. But the volatile situation in California and the unsold tickets for most games are cause for concern.

The Club World Cup is about to begin, and Infantino has released the news of expanding to 48 teams in 2029, creating an atmosphere of the same size as the national team's World Cup and building momentum for the Club World Cup.

In this Club World Cup, in addition to the superstars familiar to the fans of the eight European giants, other teams also have Messi, Suarez, Busquets, Alba, Di Maria, Cavani, Ramos, Giroud, Jorginho, Thiago Silva, Ganso, Mitrovic, Milinkovic, Koulibaly, Cancelo and other superstars.

Although the lack of the 2025 new AFC Champions League, Africa and Copa Libertadores titles, as well as the popular European giants such as Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona, AC Milan, Cristiano Ronaldo, Salah, Neymar and other superstars have made the Club World Cup a lot of discoloration, FIFA's "Club World Cup transfer window" still allows Real Madrid's Hausen and Arnold, Manchester City's Reinders, Cherki, Nuri, and Dortmund's Bellingham Jr. to join as desired, improving the team's chances of winning the championship.

In the group stage of the Club World Cup, as much as possible, Champions League or Club World Cup finals such as Paris vs Atletico Madrid, Bayern vs Boca, Manchester City vs Juventus, Inter Milan vs River Plate, etc., have been arranged to increase attention and commercial value. At the same time, 8 new rules were introduced, including a 5-second countdown for the goalkeeper to hold the ball; Exclusive dialogue between the captain and the referee; If the coach or substitute accidentally touches the ball before it goes out of bounds, only an indirect free kick will be awarded, and no red or yellow cards will be awarded. and the "Alvarez Rule", in which the penalty kick is scored after the penalty kick is scored after the penalty kick is taken twice, instead of the "Alvarez rule" that the penalty kick is invalid. There are also centimeter-level semi-automatic offside systems, referee view cameras, on-site synchronous video playback screens and intelligent substitution systems.

The European and American media are generally optimistic about the prospect of the Club World Cup, except for the lack of more giants and superstars, most of the tickets for non-European and American giants to participate in the competition are not interested.

The turmoil in California, particularly in Los Angeles, has added to the uncertainty of how the Club World Cup will play normally. The Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles will host 6 matches between 3 teams in Group B, Atletico Madrid, and Botafogo, and 6 matches between Inter Milan, River Plate, Monterrey and Urawa Red Diamonds in Group E.

Before the expansion of the Club World Cup to 32 teams, Asian football did not perform badly.

In the old edition, only seven teams competed in the Club World Cup, while Asian teams needed a maximum of four matches to compete for the trophy. In 2005, Saudi Arabia's Jeddah United became the first Asian team to reach the semi-finals; In 2016, the 12th Asian team finally succeeded in reaching the final, Kashima Antlers became the first Asian team to reach the final, and it was also the closest Asian team came to winning the championship, Kashima once led 2-1, and Real Madrid dragged it until extra time to win. After that, the UAE's Al Ain (2018) and Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Crescent (2022) reached the final again, but both lost to Real Madrid by a large margin.

This Club World Cup is the "Club World Cup", and it will be interesting to see how far Asian clubs can go.

Riyadh Crescent and Al Ain have reached the finals before, Urawa Red Diamonds have reached the semi-finals twice, and Ulsan HD has failed to reach the semi-finals twice. Of course, the four Asian teams hope to make a breakthrough, but the group stage group draw is not ideal.

Urawa Red Diamonds are in the same group as Inter Milan, River Plate and Monterrey, and Inter Milan have reached the Champions League final, and River Plate are the top giants in South America. Ain was the champion of the AFC Champions League last season, but the last time he played in the Club World Cup was eight years ago, and he participated in the second round of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup last year, this time in the same group as Manchester City and Juventus. Ulsan HD is in the same group as Brazilian giants Fluminense and Bundesliga powerhouse Borussia Dortmund, and the probability of qualifying is not high.

Riyadh Crescent, which is the strongest on paper and has a total value of up to 154 million euros, former Inter coach Inzaghi Jr. has just taken over and is not familiar with the team. Although there are strong players in Europe and the United States such as Mitrovic, Milinkovic, Neves, and Cancelo, there is still a gap in strength. Although the group opponent is only Real Madrid, the Mexican team Pachuca has a large number of immigrants in the United States and has almost half of the home advantage.

In the National Team World Cup, 12 Asian teams were outside their home soil, and the best result was the quarterfinals of North Korea in 1966, but only 16 teams participated at that time, and only reached the first round of the knockout round. After the 1998 World Cup was expanded to 32 teams, Australia, Japan, and South Korea all qualified for the group stage in a total of 6 times and stopped in the round of 16, and the Japanese team's 9th place in the 2010 and 2022 World Cups is the best result for an Asian team playing outside their home country.

This 32-team club version of the Club World Cup, whether Asian teams can break through the group stage, or even surpass the best results outside their home country in the World Cup, is one of the important highlights.

There is no Chinese team participating in this Club World Cup, but there is no lack of Chinese elements. In addition to the top sponsors of Chinese brands, Chinese referee Fu Ming has been selected as a video assistant referee, and Ma Ning will participate in the enforcement of the Club World Cup as a full-time fourth official. In addition, New Zealand's Auckland City team also has Zhou Tong, the only Chinese player in the Club World Cup.

As the representative of Oceania, Auckland City is participating in the Club World Cup for the 12th time this time, and the 35-year-old Zhou Tong joined Auckland City in 2023 to participate in the 2023 Club World Cup and the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup, but his substitute appearances failed to help the team break through the first round. Auckland City are in the same group as Bayern, Boca and Benfica in this Club World Cup, and it is impossible to replicate the club's best record in the history of the Club World Cup - it is impossible to make it all the way to the semi-finals like in 2014, but as Zhou Tong himself said, he is proud and lucky to represent China in the "most inclusive global club championship ever" with players from 81 countries participating.

In addition to the three Chinese footballers, there are also some "old people" of the Chinese Super League in this Club World Cup: in terms of coaches, Mascherano, the coach of the host team Miami International, who participated in the opening match on Sunday morning, played for Hebei Huaxia Happiness. Auckland City coach Vincelic, on the other hand, played for four months after the 2010 World Cup.

In terms of foreign aid, Atletico Madrid's Witsel (Kwon Jian), Seattle SuperSonics FC's Kim Ki-hee (Shenhua), Bayern's Kim Min-jae (Guoan), Ulsan's Kim Young-kwon (Guangzhou), Kang Sang-woo (Guoan), Zheng Yourong (Chongqing), Kim Min-woo (Rongcheng), and Pachuca's Longdong (Dalian) have all played in the Chinese Super League. Among them, Kim Yingquan has also participated in the Club World Cup twice with Guangzhou.