LaLiga president Javier Tebas has doubled down on his criticism of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup, saying it’s his objective to “eliminate” the competition from the football calendar.
Tebas said last week the tournament is “completely absurd” and went one step further on Tuesday after watching 25 minutes of Chelsea‘s 2-0 win over LAFC, which he compared to a friendly.
“By eliminating it,” Tebas said at an event at the ESADE Business School in Madrid when asked how FIFA could do a better job of structuring the Club World Cup in the future.
“My objective is that there will be no more Club World Cups, I’m very clear about that,” he said.
“There is no room for it. There is no need for another competition that moves money towards the [same] clubs and players. The model affects the entire ecosystem of national leagues, especially in Europe, and there’s no more money in the world of audiovisual rights.
“We have to maintain the ecosystem we have already and eliminate it. Keep [the Club World Cup] as it was before, when it was played basically over one weekend and that was that. There are no available dates.”
Asked if had watched any matches, he added: “I saw a bit of the Chelsea game and it looked like a preseason friendly. I didn’t see any intensity, at least for the 25 minutes I watched.”
The Club World Cup, which is taking place across the United States, kicked off on June 14 with Inter Miami‘s goalless draw against Al Ahly and runs until July 13, when the final will take place.
There are 32 teams taking part in this expanded version, including two from Spain in Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, and it is scheduled to take place every four years.
The president of Portuguese side Porto said the club struggled to recruit players ahead of the event, with transfer targets turning down moves specifically to avoid the tournament’s additional fixture burden.
FIFA had given leagues the option to open the transfer window between June 1-10 so participating clubs could sign players before the month-long tournament in the United States.
“We tested the market recently, so we had a special transfer window from June 1-10 where the Club World Cup clubs operated. It was incredible to see that a lot of football players didn’t want to be in the competition,” Andre Villas-Boas told Men in Blazers.
“They prefer to rest in order to start afresh in the new season. So this is actually outstanding as well because FIFPRO [the global players’ union] is demanding more rest for the players.”
A FIFPRO study concluded that a four-week off-season break should be mandatory for professional soccer players.
“With the World Cup coming in America next season [2026], it’s an even bigger competition — more teams, probably 1,200 athletes in one competition,” he said.
“So the calendar is becoming exhausting and we have more injuries… The players can’t put on a good spectacle if they are not fresh.”
Villas-Boas, a former manager at clubs like Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, also said that the expanded 32-team tournament comes at a “very bad time” for European clubs who wrapped up an exhausting season in May.
Barcelona, meanwhile, who are not involved in the competition, are pressing ahead with plans to strengthen their squad this summer.
ESPN revealed last week they have activated Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García‘s €25 million ($28.9m) release clause, while they have been heavily linked with Athletic Club and Spain winger Nico Williams in recent days.
Tebas said Barça are still not able to register players freely, though, and they remain subjected to LaLiga rules which only allow them to spend a fraction of what they save or raise in the transfer market on new signings.
“One thing is making [García’s signing] official, another is being able to register players,” Tebas said.
“We will see. Barça still need to do some things to be able to register signings. Not a lot in this case, but they will have to make room, for sure. Barça know what they must do already.
“All I hear is Nico Williams, someone else and then another… I don’t know. First, it has to be true what is reported, which I don’t know if it is or not. But they’re still not in the 1:1 rule. There still need to be movements.”
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
