The Reformed Club World Cup starts on the weekend. There are also two German teams. A controversial tournament behind which there is even more.
From Saturday, 32 teams will fight for the title Club World Champion in the USA. FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund are also involved. It is a prestige project by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who had powerful difficulties in advance. That should change with the start.
The United States is currently challenged as hosts, after all, the World Cup will take place in the United States in the coming year. A tournament from which President Donald Trump also wants to benefit. In an interview with T-Online, FIFA and Human Rights expert Sylvia Schenk looks critically at the relationship between Trump and Infantino and the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia and gives her opinion on developments in Qatar.
T-online: From June 14th, the club World Cup will be held in the USA-a much discussed new XXL tournament of FIFA. With what expectations do you look at this tournament?
Sylvia Schenk: This new tournament format was not a good star right from the start, and there were eruptions in advance. Sponsors were missing, and therefore pressure on existing FIFA sponsors such as Coca-Cola was inserted. They were shortly before the legal dispute. FIFA apparently had great difficulties to refinance the huge promises that it made. In this respect, I am interested in how she comes out of it. The TV rights sale also only worked in the background with the help of DAZN and probably Saudi Arabia. One thing was particularly amused.
The cup for the club World Cup, into which it was engraved that the idea of FIFA President Gianni Infantino comes. Infantino behaves like a sun king at FIFA. And nobody puts something against it. You can only watch that with astonishment.
The sun kingdom seems to have broken out at FIFA: How do you take the role and appearance of US President Donald Trump as co-hosts of the club World Cup and the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico?
Two searched for and found each other. This trophic was even at Trump in the Oval Office. There were pictures about the world where he signed decrets that were about something completely different, and you also saw the trophy on his desk. This differs from what many other rulers or whoever has ever made from such large events. Trump thus exaggerates the FIFA and flatters Infantinos ego, also by inviting it to inauguration. He gives him a huge platform, but also himself.
Trump tries to use the World Cup for himself. He has already supported the World Cup application in his first term, in which the award also took place. He is just a sports fan, you can’t deny that. Trump knows how to take advantage of the sport. This helps him in certain voters and population circles. Since his survey values crash, he may need it again.
Infantino and Trump have been traveling ten times in recent months, most recently in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. What are the two of them in their view?
These are two men who always push themselves very strongly. To call them extroverted is still an understatement. Think of the recordings from the White House or of the Inauguration that Infantino then sent as selfies: like a little boy for Christmas who got all the gifts he wanted. In his case, it was that he was in the White House and Trump mentioned FIFA. He didn’t even notice how embarrassing it was. And that fits both: Without inhibitions, without scruples, only the ego in the foreground. Both dominate the majority, which unfortunately seems to be very well received by many people at the moment, not only in the USA. The rest of the FIFA up to DFB President Bernd Neuendorf has so far not found a recipe.