Today, you have in front of you a happy Fifa president,” Gianni Infantino grinned, as he addressed a pack of reporters in Miami in March 2019. “I am particularly happy — not for me, but for world football.” When he spoke more than six years ago, Infantino was unveiling what he believes will prove a gamechanger in club football: an expanded Club World Cup to be held not annually but every four years.
On Saturday, the inaugural edition of the expanded tournament finally kicks off, with FIFA hoping it’s a case of better late than never after the 2021 version in China was canned amid a backlog of sporting events postponed by Covid-19.
