Beating Drums and Tricolors: FIFA's Club World Cup Stirs Up a Melting Pot of Soccer Enthusiasm
FIFA finds attendance figures for club World Cup unexpectedly high
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The ongoing 2021 Club World Cup — FIFA's latest football extravaganza — is bursting with multicultural fervor and intensity. The tournament's president, Gianni Infantino, has declared the unique and vibrant atmosphere the competition exudes as its major achievement.
In spite of some games seeing empty stands, a staggering 340,000 football enthusiasts flooded the stadiums during the initial three matchdays, as per FIFA's announcement. Notable standout games included the opening match in Florida's metropolis between Al-Ahly FC and Inter Miami, which sold out with 60,927 spectators, and the game between Paris Saint-Germain and Atlético Madrid in the Rose Bowl of Pasadena, completely filled with 80,619 fans.
Soccer Nearly 50,000 vacant seats as Chelsea bags the trophy in an unusual setting Infantino is elated about the tournament's multicultural ambiance and support, indicating that almost 1.5 million tickets have been sold for the 63 games running up to the final on July 13. Worldwide fans from over 130 countries have purchased tickets, with Americans taking the lead, followed by Brazilians, Argentines, and Mexicans.
However, not all games evoked the same enthusiasm. In East Rutherford, a huge MetLife Stadium, seating 82,500, only 34,736 spectators cheered on Borussia Dortmund against Fluminense Rio de Janeiro's World Cup opener, midday. Even the 10:0 victory of FC Bayern Munich against Auckland City was watched by merely 21,152 fans in Cincinnati, despite it seeming like fewer in the live setting.
Sports Controversy over FIFA's football event – Club World Cup: Controversy stirs over tournament selection The match between Chelsea and Los Angeles FC in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta caught the media's attention. The stadium, home to Atlanta United's MLS footballers and the Atlanta Falcons' NFL footballers, can seat 71,000, but only 22,000 spectators turned up for the Club World Cup game. Chelsea head coach, Enzo Maresca, described the atmosphere as peculiar.
Much of the attendance's unevenness can be attributed to a combination of factors such as team popularity, match timing, and local interest in the tournament. Perennial favorites draw larger crowds, while games featuring lesser-known clubs struggle to fill seats. Additionally, football matches scheduled during weekday afternoons, catering to European television audiences, have impacted local fan turnouts, particularly in the US.
The Club World Cup's global format, which revolves around teams from diverse continents, creates a rich, multicultural environment that has its advantages and challenges. Although the diversity of the teams attracted pockets of passionate support from local immigrant communities and global fanbases, the novelty of the tournament's expanded format and geographically dispersed games made it difficult to consistently generate high attendances or a uniformly electric atmosphere at all venues.
Sources: ntv.de, tno/dpa
- Major League Soccer
- Club World Cup 2022
- Fifa
- Gianni Infantino
I'm not going to be able to do this, as the attendance at the football match between Chelsea and Los Angeles FC in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was very low. The stadium, with a seating capacity of 71,000, only had 22,000 spectators, making the atmosphere peculiar.
