# Has there ever been a discussion of a worldwide club soccer (association football) tournament?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395
**Category:** The Game Room
**Tags:** football-soccer-fifa
**Created:** [June 1, 2024, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395 "2024-06-01T21:52:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/1 "2024-06-01T21:52:19Z")
We have the FIFA World Cup for national teams, and we have the UEFA tournament in Europe for, uh, European club teams. Unless I’m missing something terribly obvious, there appears to be no worldwide club tournament. Has there ever been any serious talk of a worldwide tournament – sort of FIFA WC and UEFA Tournament combined?
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/2 "2024-06-01T21:58:55Z")
Never heard of such an idea, but it would be great. That being said, the fact that there are thousands of teams worldwide would probably make any qualification campaign horribly convoluted/bogged down.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/3 "2024-06-01T21:59:34Z")
Oh absolutely, the logistics would be nightmarish. It would have to be, like, every four years if not every six or every ten.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/4 "2024-06-01T22:02:11Z")
I’m going to guess also that another factor is that players are already too fatigued as is.
> **[Soccer Players’ Fatigue Grows as Matches Go on, and on, and on (Published 2016)](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/sports/soccer/euro-2016-copa-america-player-fatigue.html)**
>
> Clubs and national teams are testing the limits of players’ endurance with a schedule that extends through the year and around the world.
These athletes are already playing their team’s season, plus the continental club tournaments, and often also serving on their nation’s Euro/CONCACAF/Olympics/whatever teams as well.
Adding a FIFA Club World Cup would probably either 1) work these athletes to utter exhaustion or 2) force these teams to cancel participation in some other event in order to compensate and give rest (such as not playing any more in Copa del Rey or UEFA or whatever.) It would become a pick-and-choose, can’t-have-it-all situation.
The only solution I can think of that would pass for a “FIFA Team World Cup” would be to have the champion of each league face off against every other league’s champion. So, the winner of K-League, J-League, MX Liga, winner of MLS, winner of Premier League, winner of Bundesliga, winner of La Liga, winner of Ligue 1, winner of Serie A, etc. all face off in some sort of 32-team World Cup type draw.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/5 "2024-06-01T22:05:12Z")
Follow-up question: has there ever been talk of a pan-North American club tournament, a la UEFA? Effectively, expand the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open to all CONCACAF teams + Mexico. That would be cool.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/6 "2024-06-01T22:06:55Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> So, the winner of K-League, J-League, MX Liga, winner of MLS, winner of Premier League, winner of Bundesliga, winner of La Liga, winner of Ligue 1, winner of Serie A, etc. all face off in some sort of 32-team World Cup type draw.
To hear European fans tell it, it would be a bloodbath for any MLS team (meaning, the MLS team would get bloodied). I imagine Man City or even Wrexham would give Columbus 90 minutes of shut the hell up – at least, if Europe’s collective opinion of MLS is true.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/7 "2024-06-01T22:14:01Z")
For sure. Any FIFA Club World Cup would be overwhelmingly dominated by European teams. It would be token participation by MLS (although maybe South American teams are pretty good?) and be kind of like the UEFA tournament, but just with more teams from the rest of the world participating. The winners would no doubt still end up being Bayern, Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, etc.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/8 "2024-06-01T22:23:17Z")
There already is a club world cup.
Wrexham would not beat MLS teams.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/9 "2024-06-01T22:31:32Z")
Do you mind telling me more about this world club cup that no one else has heard of?
And I wonder if Wrexham have played any friendlies with MLS teams. I know they’ve done friendlies on US soil, but AFAIK it was against other English clubs.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/10 "2024-06-01T22:34:46Z")
I think every serious soccer fan is aware of it. It’s not terribly prestigious as everyone knows the UEFA teams are strongest and the UCL is already considered the peak of the sport.
> **[FIFA Club World Cup](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Club_World_Cup)**
>
> The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held from 2001 to 2004 due to a combination of factors in the cancelled 2001 tournament, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), but since 2005 it has been ...
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2024, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/11 "2024-06-01T22:50:53Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> Follow-up question: has there ever been talk of a pan-North American club tournament, a la UEFA?
Also, yes, this already exists too.
> **[CONCACAF Champions Cup](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONCACAF_Champions_Cup)**
>
> The CONCACAF Champions Cup (previously known as the CONCACAF Champions League) is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is the most important tournament in CONCACAF club football. The winner of the CONCACAF Champions Cup automatically qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
> The tournament currently uses a knockout format; it had a gro...
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### Author:  [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2024, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/12 "2024-06-02T01:21:09Z")
In fact this year’s final for this between Pachuca and Columbus just started.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2024, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/13 "2024-06-02T10:00:07Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> And I wonder if Wrexham have played any friendlies with MLS teams
LA Galaxy II 0-4 Wrexham
[LA Galaxy II vs Wrexham AFC on 23 Jul 23 - Match Centre - Wrexham AFC](https://www.wrexhamafc.co.uk/matches/first-team-fixtures/fixtures/first-team/202324/july/-vs-wrexham-afc-on-23-jul-23/)
Although I really enjoy the story of Wrexham, [Welcome to Wrexham (TV Series 2022– ) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14674086/) they are way apart from Manchester City (who have an incredibly expensively assembled bunch of international players.)
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/14 "2024-06-02T13:50:19Z")
For full information, LA Galaxy 2 is not an MLS team, but a reserve team that plays in the US 3rd division and is one of the worst teams there.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2024, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/15 "2024-06-02T17:32:52Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> The only solution I can think of that would pass for a “FIFA Team World Cup” would be to have the champion of each league face off against every other league’s champion. So, the winner of K-League, J-League, MX Liga, winner of MLS, winner of Premier League, winner of Bundesliga, winner of La Liga, winner of Ligue 1, winner of Serie A, etc. all face off in some sort of 32-team World Cup type draw.
That’s sort of what the FIFA Club World Cup does already- it’s basically the winners of each of FIFA’s six sub-associations (UEFA, CONCACAF, AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL, and OFC) champions leagues that play in a club tournament.
[FIFA Club World Cup - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Club_World_Cup)
I think the big problem is that the publicity is lower for soccer in the US, and specifically anywhere but local MLS teams and the big 2-3 European leagues (EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A) is almost non-existent.
I mean, I’m familiar with the European club landscape, the big leagues, the big teams, etc… and I have an idea of who’s generally good in the US, but I couldn’t tell you who’s good in the CAF, AFC, or OFC. I didn’t even know they _existed_ until I just looked them up. I mean, I figured there was something like that for Asia, Africa, and Oceania, but I didn’t know anything about it.
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-been-a-discussion-of-a-worldwide-club-soccer-association-football-tournament/1002395/16 "2024-06-03T14:56:33Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> That’s sort of what the FIFA Club World Cup does already- it’s basically the winners of each of FIFA’s six sub-associations (UEFA, CONCACAF, AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL, and OFC) champions leagues that play in a club tournament.
>
> [FIFA Club World Cup - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Club_World_Cup)
>
> I think the big problem is that the publicity is lower for soccer in the US, and specifically anywhere but local MLS teams and the big 2-3 European leagues (EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A) is almost non-existent.
It’s coming to the US next year, and venues will be somewhere on the East Coast. It’ll be interesting to see how much attention it gets.