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Chelsea players celebrate next to US President Donald Trump after beating Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 13, 2025.
Three things we learned from the Club World Cup
On a muggy afternoon in New Jersey yesterday, a London-based, American-owned soccer club beat a Qatari-owned, French-based one to win the Club World Cup final, as Chelsea defeated Paris Saint-Germain 3-0. US President Donald Trump not only watched, but came down to the field for the trophy ceremony himself.
The United States hosted the tournament, which featured the world’s top soccer clubs, as a dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup, which will pit national teams against each other in matches taking place across the US, Mexico, and Canada. As we look ahead to that tournament, the most-watched sporting event in the world, what did we learn from this year’s club tournament?
Donald Trump will embrace next year’s World Cup.
Just look at the trophy ceremony yesterday: the US leader descended from his box seats to hand the trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James, before standing among the team as they celebrated.
This is surprising to some degree: football is a global sport, and this was a global club tournament where none of the US-based teams advanced to the latter stages. The ticket prices were expensive and most of the games took place on the coasts. The tournament smacked of “globalism” and elitism — two things that sit uneasily with Trump’s America First styling.
But the president is also a born performer who wouldn’t miss a chance to be in the global spotlight.
Looking ahead to next year, expect the US president to cut a large figure in the World Cup tournament, even if that means jilting fellow hosts Canada and Mexico. If things go well, he’ll take the credit. If they don’t, he’ll almost certainly blame the neighbors. And at the very end of it all, don’t be surprised if he tries to throw a red MAGA hat on one of the winning side’s players – remember when the Qatari emir threw a traditional bisht robe on Argentine champion Lionel Messi during the trophy ceremony for the last World Cup in Doha?
This tournament tested the relationship between footballing authorities and the players.
Following the lead of many of the world’s top national football leagues, FIFA, the sports global governing body, wants players to play more and more games. Not only has it vastly expanded the Club World Cup – the tournament used to feature just 7 teams and was 10 days long, whereas this one gathered 32 teams and lasted a month – it has also increased the number of countries in next year’s World Cup to 48, up from 32.
The players are hitting back, voicing concerns about player welfare. It didn’t help that they had to play in the stifling American summer heat, nor that FIFA failed to even invite the players’ union Fifpro to a recent meeting about off-season breaks – the union also slammed the Club World Cup on Monday, as well as its organizers. Certain footballers like England’s Ben White have shunned international duty, and it’s possible that others may follow suit with the brutal schedule.
Could that affect whether some of the games top stars play in the World Cup next year? The world’s most celebrated athletes have labor disputes too.
Finally, international tensions will cloud next year’s tournament.
While the Club World Cup didn’t figure much in most Americans’ daily lives, next year’s tournament between international teams will dominate headlines and cities. The demand for tickets will be vastly higher, and thousands will come to support their teams from abroad.
Yet questions lurk about which fans will be able to attend next year, and which ones will want to attend.
However, Trump recently signed a travel ban that bars citizens from 12 countries from entering the United States. One of those countries is Iran, which has already qualified for the World Cup.
They might not be the only ones either. Haiti and Sudan could also qualify for the World Cup, yet both are on the travel ban list. What’s more, the Trump administration has warned another 36 countries – including likely World Cup qualifiers Egypt, Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – that it may add them to the list if they don’t fix certain safety concerns.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been working hard to maintain the global aspect of the World Cup. He has also heaped praise on Trump each time he appears at the White House for a soccer-related event – he even attended the president’s second inauguration – as he hopes to keep the US president on board with his plans. With a travel ban already in place, and a possible expansion to follow, Infantino has his work cut out if he wants to keep soccer’s top tournament accessible to its most adoring and committed fans.
Inter Miami Forward Lionel Messi controls the ball during the first half of an MLS match against the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, on May 24, 2025.
Hard Numbers: It’s called soccer now
The FIFA Club World Cup kicks off on Saturday, with the United States acting as hosts for a competition of the top local teams on the globe, like Real Madrid and River Plate. The expanded tournament will act as a dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup, the country-on-country tourney that will take place across North America. However, political issues, as well as concerns about audience numbers, are putting a cloud over the competition.
32: There will be 32 football clubs from six continents competing in the Club World Cup, including 12 teams from Europe and six from South America. Inter Miami, a team that counts Lionel Messi in its ranks, earned a free slot as host.
25: The Club World Cup has been running on-and-off for 25 years, dating back to the first competition in 2000. However, this is the first time the tournament will be of such a large magnitude – it usually just comprises seven teams and lasts 10 days. The last seven Club World Cups were hosted in the Middle East and North Africa.
$1 billion: The streaming platform DAZN – owned by former oligarch Sir Len Blavatnik – paid $1 billion for the rights to broadcast the tournament. In an effort to maximize the audience, the platform will air the games for free. $1 billion is, incidentally, also the amount of prize money that will be split among the participants, double the kitty from the last World Cup.
0: US President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, which covers 12 countries, won’t affect any of the players, after the White House made an exemption for athletes and coaches. Admittedly, very few of the players are from one of the countries on the banned list – Mehdi Taremi, Inter Milan’s Iranian striker, is the highest-profile player from a banned nation. Yet Trump’s order defies FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s declaration, made during a White House meeting in May, that “the world is welcome in America.” There’s no exception for the soccer fans from these 12 countries.
Paris 2024 Olympics - Football - Women's Group A - Canada vs New Zealand - Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium, Saint-Etienne, France - July 25, 2024. Katie Kitching of New Zealand in action with Jade Rose of Canada.
Drama abounds at the Olympics. But not the kind you’d expect.
Canada is making news at the Olympics already – but not the good kind. On Wednesday, two Canadians – analyst Joseph Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander – were sent home and removed from the women’s soccer team after a member of the support team was caught spying with a drone on the New Zealand women’s team practice. Lombardi was also given a suspended prison sentence from French officials, which he accepted.
Team Canada Head Coach Bev Priestman opted to voluntarily sit out the first game against New Zealand. Fifa is now investigating Priestman, Lombardi, and Mander.
The drone scandal couldn’t entirely distract, however, from the news that singer Celine Dion was seen in Paris, fueling speculation that she could perform at the Olympics. Dion was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022, which has left her unable to perform.
She won’t be the only artist catching attention in Paris, though. Snoop Dog will carry the Olympic torch on Friday.
The US is expected to win 123 medals and lead the count at the Paris games, while Canada is anticipated to bring home 22, putting them just outside the top 10.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sit in a F-16 fighter jet at Skrydstrup Airbase in Vojens, Denmark, August 20, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Ukraine finally getting F-16s, Hooliganism ahead of Euro semifinal, Snake smuggling in China, Rwanda says no refund to the UK
60: NATO countries have started transferring US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the White House announced on Wednesday. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium have pledged to provide roughly 60 of the fighter jets to Ukraine amid its war with Russia. Kyiv has been pushing for NATO countries to provide F-16s for well over a year. This first batch is being donated by the Dutch and Danish, though it’s unclear precisely how many are being sent at this time.
5: Hooliganism continues to plague the beautiful game … At least five people were injured in Dortmund, Germany, in clashes between Dutch and English football (soccer) fans ahead of the Euro 2024 semifinal between the two countries on Wednesday. Some of the violence was reportedly linked to Dutch fans attacking English fans in bars and attempting to steal flags.
100: In the immortal words of Indiana Jones, “Snakes … why’d it have to be snakes?” A man attempted to smuggle over 100 live snakes into China by hiding them in his pants but was caught by customs officials. He was apparently traveling with a wide variety of reptiles and packed them into drawstring canvas bags sealed with tape that were discovered in his pockets.
280 million: Rwanda says it’s not refunding the UK for a now-defunct deal for asylum-seekers to be deported to the landlocked African country. The UK provided Rwanda with roughly $280 million as part of the controversial scheme pushed by the prior Conservative government, though no deportations ever occurred, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the plan is now dead. The UK on Monday expressed hope it would get some of the funds back, but Rwanda on Wednesday said that wasn’t part of the agreement. “If you come and ask for cooperation and then withdraw, that’s your decision,” said Alain Mukuralinda, a Rwandan government spokesperson, adding, “Good luck.”
OPINION: Here’s why I can’t watch soccer like a normal person
Politics and history have a way of intruding on – even ruining – everything for me, and these days, it’s soccer’s turn.
Right now, most of the Western Hemisphere is engrossed in two major soccer tournaments. In Europe, it’s the Euros, where the Old Countries are battling it out. In the Americas, it’s the Copa América, where the New Ones are.
All told, the countries participating in the two tournaments are home to more than a billion people. So, it’s a big deal – basically two half-filled World Cups at once.
The on-field dramas are rich enough. Will this be the last time an aging Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player ever, puts on his country’s uniform? Is this unexpectedly strong Venezuela team for real? Across the ocean, how stacked is host country Germany still? Can England manage to not disappoint?
That’s all good, but when I watch the matches, look at the flags, and read the names on the jerseys, I can’t help but see or think about different things entirely – political things.
So when, for example, French striker Kylian Mbappé, whose parents are from Cameroon and Algeria, puts one in the back of the net, I don’t just wonder whether he really is the best player in the world now (is he?). I also immediately think of the backlash against immigration in France, which – as elsewhere in the EU – has boosted the far right. On Sunday in France, in fact, the overtly anti-immigrant party of Marine Le Pen topped the polls in the first round of the country's snap elections. This despite Mbappé's own direct appeals to young French voters not to let Le Pen's party win.
On that score, when Austria plays Turkey in a few days, help me NOT flip back to the 1683 Siege of Vienna , when the Habsburgs stopped the Ottomans’ last, best attempt to push into the heart of Europe. Far-right politicians in Europe today, of course, have embraced the symbolism of that exact battle as part of their calls to limit immigration from the Islamic world. Keep an eye on ultra-nationalist Euro Twitter on Tuesday when the match is on.
Back on this side of the Atlantic, the Mexico vs. Ecuador game on Sunday was the most exciting faceoff between the two countries since April, when Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito, in order to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice president who had taken asylum there while fleeing a corruption conviction.
But I couldn't help thinking of the bigger Ecuador story: the country is in a state of emergency as murders skyrocket amid a war between Mexican (and Colombian) cartels trying to claim turf in the small Andean country. That violence has driven Ecuadoran asylum seekers as far away as New York City, where a growing migrant crisis is defining the city's politics. (See our special on that here.)
Speaking of migrant crises: Venezuela, -- where political repression, economic mismanagement, and the effects of US sanctions have caused more than 7 million people to flee over the past several years -- is somehow fielding one of the strongest teams at the Copa. Could success at the tournament give a boost to strongman Nicolas Maduro? He could use the help. He is so unpopular that he might actually lose a July 28th election that he has spent years carefully designing in his favor.
You get the point.
I understand this is a little nuts. A sports match is just a sports match. But for any politically minded person, it’s never just a sports matchup when it’s national teams.
Like it or not, the politics of how nation-states define themselves — that is, who gets to be in them, who gets what from them, where their borders really are — is at the heart of so many of the most electric political questions in the world today.
The immigration debates in Europe or the US are about who gets to come in. The socioeconomic, political, and racial fault lines and conflicts within countries of Latin America are, in many cases, what is driving people out.
In just about every country represented at the Copa and the Euros, these questions are shaping -- or reshaping -- politics. I can't help if if I'm seeing that in every match. All I'm doing is watching some soccer, right?
Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Group C - Serbia v England - Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen, Germany - June 16, 2024 Serbia fans inside the stadium before the match
The beautiful game can sometimes be ugly
The European Championship, aka the Euros, has been underway for just one week, but it’s already turning political. Serbia wants UEFA, soccer’s European governing body, to whip out a red card for Croatia and Albania over allegations their fans shouted anti-Serbian slurs during a match on Wednesday.
“Kill, kill, kill the Serb,” the fans allegedly chanted. It’s fair to say that Serbia felt this was extremely offside — and the country is threatening to quit the competition if action isn’t taken.
All of this reflects the long-running tensions in the Balkans linked to the 1990s Yugoslav Wars.
“What happened is scandalous,” said Jovan Surbatovic, general secretary of the Football Association of Serbia. “If UEFA doesn’t punish them, we will think about how to proceed.”
Relatedly, UEFA on Wednesday canceled the credentials of a Kosovar journalist for allegedly making a nationalist gesture toward Serbian fans during Sunday’s Serbia vs. England match. Serbian and Albanian fans also scored own goals of sorts by displaying nationalist banners at games, leading to fines from UEFA.
Copa America 2024 - Argentina training
Who’s watching the Copa?
Fans across the Americas will tune in tonight to watch a different type of football – fútbol – as Argentina and Canada kick off the first match of Copa America. The tournament, which features top national soccer teams from North and South America, has been around for over 100 years. This year marks its first edition on its new four-year cycle to align with the UEFA European Football Championship, aka Euros.
Why is the US playing host? The decision was announced last year as a part of a strategic agreement between the CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation, and the Concacaf, the North/Central American and Caribbean soccer federation, to develop the sport ahead of the 2024 World Cup, also to be hosted in North America. The other reason is simple: money.
Copa vs. Euro. Despite being the world’s oldest soccer tournament, Copa America has long struggled to escape the shadow of its younger brother, the Euros, for a few reasons. It features fewer teams (16) than its European cousin (24), and the same few teams – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay – often dominate, making it less competitive overall. Also, while the region is home to some of the world’s best players – Messi, Pele, Maradona, Di Stéfano – it’s a more concentrated talent pool than Europe.
The Euro also outpaces the Copa in scale, money, and publicity – in a day, for example, French superstar Kylian Mbappé made headlines for political activism, a broken nose, and his team’s first Euro match win. It’s hard to compete with that kind of attention.
Feeling competitive? Our in-house Argentinian, intern Sophia Burke, expects the World Cup champs to bring another trophy back to Buenos Aires, but we’ll be watching to see whether the Copa can get enough folks on this side of the Atlantic buzzing about football/soccer to rival the Euros.Kylian Mbappé of France during the UEFA Euro 2024 Football Championship match between Austria and France on June 17, 2024
Footballer Kylian Mbappé attacks France’s far right
“We’re at a crucial moment in our country’s history,” Mbappé warned, alluding to what he sees as threats posed by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which performed spectacularly in the recent European parliamentary elections, spurring President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve parliament and call for snap elections. Mbappé encouraged fans to vote on June 30 to block the “extremes knocking at the doors of power.”
Many players on the French team are immigrants or children of immigrants – Mbappé’s parents are from Cameroon and Algeria – putting them at odds with Le Pen’s plans to limit migration strictly. Mbappé’s announcement came hours after his teammate, Marcus Thuram, also urged fans to vote against the far right.
His call to action came after tens of thousands took to the streets of France on Saturday to denounce the far right in protests organized by labor unions and supported by the newly formed left-wing coalition. Polls show the National Rally in the lead, but we’ll be watching to see whether the backlash gains momentum against the far-right’s success ahead of the vote at the end of the month.