Manchester City supporters can now join those of their cross-town rivals Manchester United in singing the boast: "We've won it all."
City, the European champions, crushed their South American counterparts Fluminense 4-0 on Friday night in Jeddah to claim the Fifa Club World Cup.
The triumph furnished them with the only glittering bauble absent from their perpetually swelling trophy cabinet at the Etihad Stadium.
It was the club's fifth honour of a glorious 2023 which can sparkle with the FA Cup, Premier League title, Champions League and the Uefa Super Cup.
“Right now, I don’t know if we are an all-time great team,” said City boss Pep Guardiola after the cruise past the Copa Libertadores champions at the King Abdullah Sports City.
“If people talk about the team 25 or 30 years from now, it means you’re a really good team,” he added. “For the moment this is nice. We have been the best team in the world.”
The Paris Saint-Germain boss Luis Enrique will surely reminisce. The 53-year-old Spaniard hoisted the Club World Cup in 2015 when he was head coach at Barcelona. His charges included Lionel Messi, Neymar, Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez.
Their alpha skills swamped the Argentine side River Plate 3-0 in the final in Yokohama to take Barcelona to the crown for the third time and their fifth title of the year.
No such pomp will punctuate Enrique's end to 2023. But his first six months as boss at the Parc des Princes will be at least considered a success.
Shorn of Neymar, Messi and Marco Verratti, PSG top Ligue 1 with 40 points after 17 games and have moved into the last-16 of the 2023/24 Champions League where they will play Real Sociedad.
Enrique raised eyebrows in July when he declared at his unveiling that he would not enter into what he deemed an unhealthy obsession with winning the Champions League.
Desire
The PSG owners' cult-like lust for the title had swallowed up several top coaches including Thomas Tuchel, Carlo Ancelotti and Unai Emery.
Enrique's gambit is that without the pressure, PSG might be at last blessed with the luck needed to win European club football's most prestigious prize.
And why not?
As the French champions proceed in that tournament, the club's strategic planners can feast their eyes on another elite tournament.
From 2025, the Club World Cup will become an altogether different specimen.
Rather than an annual week-long yuletide folk dance involving six continental champions and a special guest, it will effectively quintuple into a 32-team summer shebang every four years.
The United States will host the first party between 15 June and 13 July. The new expanded format will parade eight groups of four teams and proceed with a round robin first round with the top two from each pool advancing to the knockout stages from the last-16.
Configuration
“Clubs play a fundamental role in world football," said Gianni Infantino, head of world football's governing body Fifa which will organise the tournament.
"And the Club World Cup will be a major milestone in providing clubs from all confederations with a fitting stage on which to shine at the highest level of the game."
The tournament will feature outfits from across the globe with Europe entering 12 teams.
Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City will take part as the winners of the Uefa Champions League in the latest four-year cycle.
PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Porto and Benfica have also secured places in the tournament in 2025 via the coefficient pathway – their performances in European competitions over the past four years.
The other berths will be decided in the same manner should any of the already qualified teams win the 2024 Champions League.
Palmeiras, Flamengo and Fluminense will be there from South America as victors of the Copa Libertadores in 2021, 2022 and 2023 resepctively.
The 2024 Copa Libertadores winners will also claim a slot along with the two best eligible teams in the four-year ranking in Conmebol - the South American governing body.
Adding to the 18 from Europe and South America, Africa and Asia will provide eight sides.
The other six will come from the Oceania confederation and the Concacaf region covering North and Central America.
The European Clubs' Association – which represents just over 300 clubs on the continent – backed the tournament soon after Infantino floated plans about the revamp.
FIFA signs renewed Memorandum of Understanding with ECA
— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) March 27, 2023
Find out more details here 👉 https://t.co/e4aAsxconI pic.twitter.com/oVK9JW45Zj
But despite that powerful bolster, the event has come under fire.
In a statement, Fifpro, the world players' union, said the competition showed a disregard for players' personal and family lives.
It added: "The expanded competition will undercut the rest and recovery time of these players at the end of the 2024-25 season.
"Players will have to perform at the end of an 11-month season with little prospect of getting enough rest before the following season starts.
"The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game is the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance, and risks to career longevity."
In truth, some kind of reboot was needed to resuscitate interest in a competition that had essentially been annexed by European clubs which had – before City's victory – won 15 of the 19 trophies.
City – struggling in the Premier League with only one six points from their last five games – were too savvy and dynamic for the Brazilians who sent out a team which included seven players who were 33 or older.
"I don’t think we just lack money," lamented the Fluminense boss Diniz. "That’s too simplistic. But money is also important.”
Change
As well as taking the Club World Cup to another stratosphere, Fifa bosses anointed its earthly carcass the Intercontinental Cup.
It will involve teams from all six continental football federations. But the revamp gives the Uefa Champions League winners a head start.
They are guaranteed a slot in the final while the other clubs have to slug it out for the honour to play the Europeans.
In round 1, the OFC Champions League winners play either the Asian or African champions who will be in round 1 or round 2 on alternating years.
Round 2 will always feature a match between the Copa Libertadores winners and the Concacaf champions
Round 3 – named the play-off – will be a semi-final.
The final and play-off will be hosted at a neutral venue, but previous stages will be hosted by one of the clubs involved in the match.
Gripe
The World Leagues Forum - representing 44 leagues worldwide – has complained to Fifa about not being consulted over the expansion and prioritising its own interests.
It says that Fifa refuses to consider the interests of the national competitions as it continues to overload the footballing calendar.
But with around 50 million euros likely to flow into the coffers of the clubs participating in the revamped Club World Cup, Fifa will likely find no end of salivating dancers even though their starts to the following domestic season might be jeopardised.
A team winning the 2025 Club World Cup will play up to seven games within four weeks at the height of summer.
Maheta Molango the boss of the Professional Footballers' Association in England echoed the concerns of the World Leagues Forum.
"Ultimately, players have become pawns in a battle for primacy between football's governing bodies, with no one willing to take a step back or to work collaboratively to create a sustainable calendar," Molango added.
"These decisions have consequences – not just for players who are being pushed until they break, but for the future quality of these tournaments, with players becoming injured or withdrawing from games as they make their own decisions about how to manage what have become ridiculous demands."
All logical concerns likely to be drowned in the sea of cash heading into club coffers.
And as for the fans? A chance to boast.
