The former Liverpool boss has criticized the tournament’s potential impact on the health of players
FIFA’s newly expanded Club World Cup is “the worst idea ever implemented in football,” according to former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt on Friday, Klopp criticized the 32-team tournament, which is held every four years, for overburdening players in what is already a packed calendar.
The 2025 Club World Cup, currently underway in the US, began on June 14, just two weeks after the Champions League final, and runs until July 13. Unlike previous editions that included only a handful of teams, this revamped version mirrors the format of the FIFA World Cup, with eight groups of four teams each.
Klopp argued that the competition is “pointless” and “whoever wins it will be the worst winner of all time because they’ll have played all summer and then gone straight back into the league.”
Klopp also criticized the decision-makers behind the tournament, stating “people who have never been involved in the day-to-day business of football and are now coming up with ideas.”
The German coach, who led Liverpool to its first Premier League title in the 2019–2020 season, warned that the expanded FIFA tournament would entail minimal recovery time for players, potentially increasing the risk of injuries and mental exhaustion.
“It’s too many games. I fear that next season we will see injuries like never before. If not then, they’ll come during or after the Club World Cup,” Klopp said.
Klopp, now serving as head of global soccer for Red Bull, which owns the clubs RB Leipzig and the New York Red Bulls, is widely regarded as one of the world’s best football managers.
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