Chelsea FC won the FIFA Club World Cup. The English club defeated French side PSG in the final. The Conference League champions surprised the Champions League winners by winning 3-0.
The English club actually achieved the desired result in the first half at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, near New York. Cole Palmer scored two goals (in the 22nd and 30th minutes) and Joao Pedro (in the 41st minute) to put the Conference League winners ahead in the first half.
João Neves received a red card for Paris Saint-Germain in the 86th minute for aggressive behaviour, pulling Marc Cucurelliu’s hair. “Chelsea were awarded $40 million in prize money just for winning the final. PSG, which had previously dominated the tournament, received only $30 million.
Club World Cup Final and how Trump disrupted the awards ceremony
Donald Trump watched the game in the stands with his wife Melania and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The MetLife Stadium will also host the 2026 FIFA World Cup final on 19 July.
The award ceremony, according to the fans, was disrupted when Trump refused to leave the podium to pose for a photo with Chelsea despite requests. The English footballers themselves said they were ‘a little annoyed’ by the American leader’s actions.
The politically and humanitarian-minded part of the audience is also quite irritated by the new tournament, as it is largely funded by Saudi Arabia, a monarchy that was ranked 162nd out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking for 2025. On the opening day of the World Club Championship, journalist Turki al-Jasser was executed in Saudi Arabia.
Problematic conditions of the Club World Cup
There is nothing wrong with the idea of a club tournament involving teams from all over the world. At the same time, its implementation has raised many questions.
A year before the FIFA World Cup with 48 national teams, even FIFA admitted that the sometimes extreme conditions, with temperatures sometimes exceeding 35 degrees Celsius and very high humidity, were as problematic as the many hours of interruptions in games due to storms. Infantino has announced that he will make more frequent use of indoor stadiums for games played in the heat of the day.
Stadiums are often only moderately full. Infantino was delighted that a total of 2.5 million spectators attended the 63 matches, an average of 40,000 per game. The truth is that, despite the fact that tickets were sold at bargain prices or even distributed without restrictions, the arenas were often only moderately full, especially during the group stage.
Perhaps this was due to the lack of sporting value in many matches due to the sometimes huge difference in results. Despite the free broadcasts, even the big matches of the Club World Championship were far from as exciting for viewers as the European Women’s Championship, which was taking place at the same time. The new men’s tournament in the USA simply passed by many people.
Borussia Dortmund could have gone further in the Club World Cup.
