Blues dazzle, minnows rise, goals flow and starlets emerge as the planet converged on the USA to lay down an electric marker for the club game.
- Chelsea FC crowned inaugural winners of the FIFA Club World Cup
- Tournament set a new benchmark for club football on and off the pitch
- Blues forward Cole Palmer wins the adidas Golden Ball
From all corners of the globe they came. Glittering giants of the club game in Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and North America, Oceania and South America, all assembled in the USA to take a step into the unknown.
Four weeks, 63 matches and 195 goals later it’s now very much the known, as a new era of global club football has been firmly established with the inaugural edition of the FIFA Club World Cup™.
An exhilarating month of action from Miami to Seattle, Los Angeles to Philadelphia and many points in between saw stars rumbling in the Rose Bowl and rising above the Rockefeller Center. It was capped with the Blues taking a bite of the Big Apple as Chelsea FC were crowned the competition’s maiden masters.
It was a tournament of firsts in more ways than one, with technological innovations standing alongside a truly global gathering of players and fans at an event that drew record revenues and attendances.
There were twilight-dimming turns from global icons and the emergence of the stars of tomorrow. FIFA World Cup™ winners from FC Bayern München and SL Benfica mingling with the delivery drivers, real estate agents and teachers from amateur outfit Auckland City FC.
That spirit of inclusion was one that FIFA President Gianni Infantino stressed as the lights dimmed for the last time at MetLife Stadium.
“Football is the global sport. It’s the most popular sport in the world, we know that. Now we can prove that with this new competition, the Club World Cup, which really brings together teams, players and fans from all over the world.
“Auckland (City) represents 99.9% of football players and fans – all of us who would like to be like them and who will never have a chance to play and, suddenly, well, one of us, or a few of us, have been able to play against these guys and it must be a place for everyone.”
Ref Cam arrives
There were several refereeing innovations at the tournament, including allowing a corner kick to be awarded if a goalkeeper holds the ball for longer than eight seconds. An advanced version of the semi-automated offside technology also helped speed up decisions but the showstopper that brought fans closer to the game than ever was the introduction of body-worn cameras.
It was a chance for viewers at home to see things from the perspective of the match officials and brought them up close with the big decisions, game-shifting goals and the occasional meltdown.
Universal success
Teams from all six FIFA confederations picked up at least one point and also scored at least one goal at a tournament that was largely balanced and competitive. Among the highlights from the group stage was Inter Miami CF’s 2-1 win over FC Porto, which marked the first time that a Concacaf club had defeated a European foe at a FIFA club tournament. That success wasn’t just confined to the group stage though as clubs under the flags of the AFC, Concacaf, CONMEBOL and UEFA were all involved in knockout stage action.
Raining goals
Underlining the universal appeal of the tournament, there were scorers from 39 different nations at a tournament that produced more than three goals a game on average and plenty of those were strikes of the highest quality. Lionel Messi’s curling free-kick against FC Porto, a thunderbolt from CF Monterrey’s Nelson Deossa against Urawa Red Diamonds and a Kylian Mbappe bicycle kick to help settle things against Borussia Dortmund were among the highlights.
