“Real, boycott the FIFA Club World Cup!” Ancelotti’s bombshell
“Real Madrid is ready to boycott the FIFA Club World Cup.”
On his 65th birthday, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti dropped the bombshell during an interview that the club will boycott next year’s expanded and revamped FIFA Club World Cup.
The new 32-team field, which includes big clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea, will be held in the United States from June 15 to July 13, 2024, for four weeks. More than £600 million ($1.506 trillion) in prize money is up for grabs, but major European clubs and leagues are opposed to the tournament, citing concerns about the pressure on players and the controversy over abuse. Real Madrid, the European Champions League winner and one of Europe’s biggest clubs, was one of the teams expected to participate.
However, Ancelotti told Il Giornale on Tuesday, “Forget FIFA, the players and clubs will not participate in this competition. A Real Madrid match is worth 20 million dollars (about $35 billion), and FIFA wants to give this amount for the whole tournament. It’s negative. We will refuse to invite other clubs, just like we did.”
The Sun reported that the boycott attempt is being spearheaded by key figures including Premier League’s Richard Masters, the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA)’s Maheta Molango and La Liga’s Javier Tebas. FIFA has previously backed away from the idea due to concerns about player welfare.
Man City president Ferran Soriano emphasized the importance of putting players first. “As with everything in life, priorities are important. We have to decide what is most important, starting with the health of the players. We all have our own business to protect and we’ve fallen into a vortex of distractions and we can’t go on like this,” he said. “Do fans want to see an improved Champions League, Club World Cup or Nations League? We need a system that serves the fans without killing the players, and what we have now is far from that,” he criticized. PFA president 토토사이트 Molango echoed the criticism. “Sometimes the calendar can seem far away. If you look at next summer’s schedule, the European Champions League final is on May 31, the Nations League is June 4-10, then we go to the United States for the Club World Cup from June 15 to July 13, followed immediately by the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), and then the Premier League starts on August 17. I don’t know how they can do that,” he said.
However, FIFA has made it clear that it has no intention of backing down on the new format, stating that “it is entirely within FIFA’s competence to set the schedule.”