Player discontent? Broadcast rights? Sponsorship? Less than a year before kickoff, the 2025 Club World Cup full of uncertainty

On Sept. 4, the logo first dropped on Instagram. The ubiquitous soccer tune "Freed From Desire" served as the soundrack as a golden circular emblem faded into the picture over a blank screen. It looked compelling, modern, angular.

Soon after, the logo was broadcast above Times Square in New York, and posted all over FIFA's social media. It came with a cool tagline, too: "Take it to the world." And watching the video, seeing the logo, it was hard not to feel a rush of excitement. The Club World Cup is a competition that has come under immense scrutiny from fans, players and coaches alike over it's existence. But the reality is, for the 2025 edition, 32 of the best teams in the world will be playing in the United States.

Of the participants, 12 are from Europe, with Real Madrid and Manchester City - and global stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland - serving as the headliners. But Milan, PSG, Bayern Munich and Chelsea will also be present. There are fan bases to tap into in the U.S. Domestically, the Seattle Sounders are set to represent MLS, with a likely wild-card addition of Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, and there will undoubtedly be interest for Liga MX sides Monterrey, Leon and Pachuca.

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger perhaps summarized it best: "In Europe we are lucky," he said last year, "but it's important that we make football really global and this creates a chance for other clubs to progress, this is the real target."

Yet there remain issues. For all of the optimism, some crucial questions are yet to be answered in full. First is where, exactly, this tournament is going to take place? That was finally settled on Saturday when - just nine months before the start of the tournament - FIFA announced the venues during the Global Citizen music festival in New York. These are the venues announced by FIFA president Gianni Infantino:

The Rose Bowl, Los Angeles

Lumen Field, Seattle

Camping World Stadium, Orlando

Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta

GEODIS Park, Nashville

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte

TQL Stadium, Cincinnati

Audi Field, Washington

MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

Hard Rock Stadium, Miami

Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

But that timing is still tight. The tournament begins June 15 and the final will take place on July 13 at MetLife Stadium.

And there are admitted concerns as to the tournament running concurrently with the Gold Cup. The CONCACAF tournament revealed its grounds on Wednesday, with a west-coast heavy slate. There seems to be something resembling geographic alignment here, despite the two west coast venues for the Club World Cup.

Rodri was unfortunate enough to describe it best. The Manchester City midfielder, less than a week before suffering a season-ending ACL tear, speculated that players might go on strike due to a packed fixture list.

"I think we are close to that, it is easy to understand," he said in a press conference. "I think it's something general. I think if you ask any player he will say the same, it is not the opinion of Rodri or whatever. I think it's the general opinion of the players. And if it remains this way, there will be a moment where we have no other option, I really think but let's see. I don't know what's going to happen but it's something that worries us because we are the guys that suffer."

He might just have a point. This will be the busiest season on record for those playing in the Club World Cup. If Man City reach their previous heights in the Champions League, domestic club competitions, and Club World Cup, they could play more than 80 games.

Rotation exists, of course, but Rodri admitted that "40-50" games is probably the optimal number for a professional to operate at a high level throughout an entire campaign.

This isn't just a European problem. MLS, with the addition of an expanded Leagues Cup in 2023, is seeing its schedule get busier. Meanwhile, additional competitions in South America have only increased demands on players.

The Club World Cup itself will add to the concern. The 32 teams will be split into eight groups, and will play each other once each. The top two will advance to a standard knockout stage format. To win the tournament, a club will have to play seven games, all while dealing with what could be fairly extensive travel across the U.S.

Players unions have made their feelings heard, too. The English, French and Italian football associations have filed a joint complaint against FIFA based concerns about pushing players past their limits. Meanwhile, global player's union FIFPro, is also threatening legal action.

As ever, though, there is incentive to participate, and to win. For some time, there was a perception that this competition was merely a collection of glorified friendlies. In 2019, then-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp made his feelings clear about the tournament shortly before the semifinal: "You cannot just add on tournaments. It doesn’t work. FIFA doesn’t like I say it – sorry – but it is my opinion and my opinion has to be right sometimes, because I think about football all day.”

Yet there are undoubted financial incentives for those involved. Man City reportedly made $5 million from their win in 2023. With more teams, potential revenues are expected to grow, according to The Athletic.

Napoli club president Aurelio De Laurentiis voiced his disappointment after a Champions League loss to Barcelona last season; not because his team had been bumped from Europe's top competition - rather, they would miss out on the potential earnings that could come with a Club World Cup campaign. He even speculated that Juventus - who had qualified ahead of them - should be removed from the competition due to their financial breaches that had them removed from European competition in 2024.

"But I also think that Napoli should go anyway, precisely because if Juventus have been punished by UEFA with elimination from the European cups, they shouldn’t even be admitted to the Club World Cup, even though such an event will create a thousand problems for us in the next national championship," De Laurentiis said.

On Sept. 19, FIFA president Gianni Infantino got publicly involved. FIFA had been trying for months to secure a global TV rights deal for the tournament, and had been unable to agree on one that met their valuation. Apple reportedly offered $1 billion for a global rights deal, but that fell significantly short of the $4B that FIFA was seeking. Infantino, who had reportedly refused to get deeply involved, summoned football's governing body to hash out a deal.

The meeting reportedly included a number of influential people in the soccer world, including PSG Chairman and head of Qatari Sports Investment Nasser Al-Khelaifi. Still, a more than week later no deal has been announced - and there is no official word as to whether anything is close concerning broadcast and streaming rights.

It is not just valuations that have been of concern. European broadcasters have been hesitant due to a scheduling overlap with Wimbledon and the Women's European Championships, according to The Athletic.

In the U.S., things are even murkier. It was reported that "a major U.S. media company with a significant sports portfolio was so unconvinced about the merits of the competition that it estimated the North American rights to be worth around $30 million."

Broadcast and streaming rights in soccer are often scattered among multiple providers on a global scale - for example, the Premier League sold rights to 40 media outlets across 97 different countries from 2022 to 2025. On the other hand, Apple committed a minimum of $2.5B over 10 years for global rights for to MLS.

Either way, it seems, that FIFA's expected rights revenue might not be as significant as it had hoped.

And then there is the issues of sponsorships, inherently intertwined with a broadcast and streaming deal. Those specifics are also being ironed out. Part of the problem, according to multiple reports, is the lack of clarity around venues - in some cases, potential sponsors will have an easier time targeting markets now that they know where the matches will be played.

The absence of a global TV deal could also concern potential global partners. And although there are expected to be plenty of domestic partners, the reported $100 million asking price per sponsor is more significant than the asking prices of NFL and NBA - which routinely reach massive US markets.

According to The Athletic, FIFA officials have suggested that the revamped Club World Cup is a tournament of such potential that it merits a new set of sponsorship deals, yet long-standing FIFA partners such as Coca-Cola and Adidas are arguing they already have rights.

The broadcast and commercial revenues are needed to appease major club sides, who have an extra month added onto their season to play in the competition. FIFA had reportedly hoped that its existing partners would be willing to refresh their current deals. To date, that all remains unanswered.

At some point, this will all come together. For all of the talk about sponsors, TV rights and player discontent, it would be unimaginable for FIFA not find the answers and hold the tournament as planned. An incident with Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the 2023-24 season was perhaps most indicative.

In an interview with Italian media in early June, Ancelotti made his feelings clear about the tournament in no uncertain terms: "Players and clubs will not participate in that tournament. A single Real Madrid match is worth 20 million [euros] and FIFA wants to give us that amount for the entire cup. Like us, other clubs will refuse the invitation."

Unsurprisingly, a few days later, the club backtracked on his behalf, insisting that Los Blancos would absolutely participate in the Club World Cup - and would give everything to win it all.

"Our club will compete, as planned, in this official competition that we face with pride and with the utmost enthusiasm to make our millions of fans around the world dream again with a new title," Real Madrid said in an official statement.

And perhaps that back and forth sums it all up. Despite the uncertainty, lack of TV deal and unclarity over sponsorships and late announcement of the venues, this is still a global soccer event. Some might not like it, but it's coming to the U.S., and fans will flock to the games. Yes, questions need answers. But it's just a matter of time.