Dhe Club World Cup 2023 will be held in Saudi Arabia. This was announced by the world football association FIFA after a council meeting on Tuesday. One year after the World Cup in Qatar, the next country on the Persian Gulf can host a major football event from December 12th to 22nd.
The decision was unanimous. The tournament will then take place in the current format with seven clubs including the European Champions League winners. Saudi Arabia has been positioning itself as an organizer of major sporting events for years. Five-time world footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing in the Saudi league since this year, and the country is also positioning itself to host the 2030 World Cup.
Tournament will be increased
Like its neighbor Qatar, Saudi Arabia has also been criticized for human rights violations. The relationship between the two countries has been complicated and marked by rivalry for years. From 2025 onwards, the already decided and much criticized increase in the Club World Cup to 32 teams will apply. The field of participants should be made up as follows: Europe will receive twelve starting places, South America six, Asia, Africa and the combination of North and Central America and the Caribbean four each, Oceania one. The host country is also firmly involved. It is not yet clear who will host the premiere. However, the tournament is scheduled to take place in June and July 2025.
The human rights organization Amnesty International sharply criticized FIFA. The world governing body has “once again ignored the Gulf state’s atrocious human rights record,” said Stephen Cockburn, Amnesty’s chief of economic, social and cultural rights, according to a statement. “FIFA once again disregards its own human rights policy and is complicit in blatant sportswashing.”
TV rights make the cash register ring
The term sportswashing refers to efforts to improve one’s own image by investing in sport. Saudi Arabia is internationally criticized for human rights violations. According to Amnesty, 81 people were executed in one day last year in the neighboring country of World Cup host Qatar. Freedom of expression and assembly are severely restricted, alcohol and homosexuality are strictly forbidden.
Meanwhile, FIFA has reported record figures in the billions for the past financial cycle, including the controversial World Cup in Qatar. Revenues totaled $7.568 billion from 2019 to 2022, up more than a billion from the previous period. This emerges from the financial report published by FIFA on Tuesday.
In the World Cup alone, revenue was $5.769 billion. Sales of TV rights accounted for the largest share. Operating profit rose to almost one billion (945 million) from 2019 to 2022, with the World Cup alone accounting for 2.359 billion.
Infantino jubiliert
FIFA President Gianni Infantino called the numbers “extremely good” and pointed out that despite the corona pandemic, revenue was over a billion above expectations. “That shows how strong FIFA is today.” The reserves of the world association are also at a record level and, at 3.971 billion, are 45 percent higher than after the 2018 World Cup in Russia. For the coming World Cup cycle from 2023 to 2026, FIFA expects a total of eleven billion US dollars.
From 2019 to 2022, FIFA distributed a good one billion US dollars to its member associations. During this period, 5.15 out of a possible six million went to the German Football Association. From 2023 to 2026, the sum for each association should increase to eight million. The financial report also provides information on the remuneration of top personnel: FIFA President Infantino will receive 3.6 million Swiss francs (3.65 million euros) in the coming year.
