Evaluating the 2025 Club World Cup’s Strategy and Success
A couple of weeks ago, I touched on how successful and transformative Formula 1 has been with its marketing efforts, bringing millions of new eyes to the sport across the globe, using various channels of promotion - Football, however, seems to be really struggling for innovation, but does it really need it?
So let’s take a look at the Club World Cup, that has just finished, and see what went well, and what went badly.
⚽ Not a Good Start
The idea for the Club World Cup went down like a lead balloon to most football fans worldwide, screaming corporate greed and sports washing to the more cynical fans worldwide - but some had high hopes, especially given the fact that it gave more eyes and platformed teams in South America and created matches that were not previously possible in other continental competitions.
Eventually, it was an all European final between Paris Saint Germain and Chelsea, where the English side were victorious - but it all still felt a little… forced. Especially when US President Donald Trump stayed with the Chelsea side during the trophy lift, which created some quite humorous content online of himself being looked at quite funny by Chelsea star Cole Palmer.
Success wise, its hard to say that it met FIFA’s own extremely high expectations, given the fact that the competition had no sell outs, and most football fans in Europe were a little footballed out after another long season.
🤔 How could it have been successful?
What could have been done differently?
Football is all about prestige, history and authenticity. This felt the opposite. The main incentives for sides to take this seriously were the ludicrous financial opportunity to reinvest into their sporting and commercial operations; and probably harsh on my part, gimmicky things like a badge on the winner’s kit, and a gold plated trophy designed by Tiffany and Co, kept in the White House rather than Chelsea’s trophy room (the sports washing comments make a little more sense now).
What would have been better, and a bigger incentive to fans and clubs alike, is to try and incorporate more authenticity into the tournament, and try to incentivise fans of all clubs to travel with discounted travel packages to watch the matches - rather than relying on fans in the US who are not as accustomed to the teams participating and the sport in general.
The strategic switch over to DAZN where all games were streamed free (with a subscription), was a good idea in practice - but many fans did not follow as DAZN’s football coverage only covers very few leagues globally. However, them adding Serie A along with La Liga is a fantastic start.
⏭️ Forward Thinking
Realistically, FIFA are probably looking at the tournament as a loss leader, and more so as one that could begin to grow in popularity in the future.
What is yet to be seen is if FIFA decide on another CWC in 2029, and where this would be. Taking the tournament global like the standard World Cup, and even how the F1 do it - would be a great way in commercialising the tournament, growing the brand and getting more eyes and fans globally.
📱Online Focus
The official Club World Cup TikTok account reached 4.6 million followers, with 99 million likes across their videos. The landscape of marketing and sport is becoming increasingly online focused, so the long term thinking is definitely there, but the execution is still a little off.
If FIFA can work with the global domestic leagues, and continental competitions, to create a one stop shop for football streaming, this would be lucrative - albeit extremely difficult combined with current TV deals - but this is where the world is heading.
Look at Netflix, they are losing money by making boxing events free to air to their existing subscribers, which platforms like Amazon Prime and DAZN are looking to emulate - maybe this is the future?
Overall, its clear that FIFA fell short of the mark in 2025, but it remains to be seen whether the Club World Cup will be a success or a failure in the long run - time will tell…
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