REAL MADRID WILL refuse to play in Fifa’s expanded Club World Cup next summer, their coach Carlo Ancelotti has said.
Real have already qualified for the 32-team event in the United States by virtue of winning the 2022 Champions League, a competition they won for a 15th time earlier this month.
However, Ancelotti has cast doubt on their involvement.
“Players and clubs will not participate in that tournament,” Ancelotti told Italian newspaper Il Giornale.
“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.”
The World Leagues Association – which includes the Premier League as a member – and world players’ union Fifpro last month threatened Fifa with legal action unless the Club World Cup is rescheduled.
They said in a letter to Fifa that the scheduling of the competition would cause “economic harm” to domestic leagues and would push players “beyond their limits”.
Fifa has refused to back down, saying it was “fully within its rights” to set the parameters of the competition.
The Club World Cup does have the backing of the European Club Association (ECA), but Real have not been members of that organisation since the ill-fated formation of the European Super League in April 2021.
Meanwhile, three fans who racially abused Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr during a match in Valencia last year have each been sentenced to eight months in prison, La Liga has announced.
The league said the conviction of the trio over an incident at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium on 21 May, 2023 was the first for racist abuse at a football match in Spain.
The individuals have also been given a two-year stadium ban from any venue hosting La Liga matches, or games held under the jurisdiction of the Spanish football federation (RFEF).
La Liga said Valencia had co-operated with the investigation and had expelled the three people as members of the club.
A letter of apology to Vinicius from the defendants was read out during the hearing, La Liga said.
“This ruling is great news for the fight against racism in Spain, as it goes some way to redressing the disgraceful wrong suffered by Vinicius Jr and sends a clear message to those individuals who go to a football stadium to hurl abuse,” La Liga president Javier Tebas said.
“La Liga will identify them, report them, and there will be criminal consequences.
“I understand that there may be some frustration at the length of time it takes for these sentences to be handed down, but this shows that Spain is a country that guarantees judicial integrity. We at La Liga can only respect the pace of justice, but once again we demand that Spanish legislation evolve to give La Liga sanctioning powers that can speed up the fight against racism.”
Currently, La Liga can only bring the facts of a case to the relevant legal authorities, and is unable to sanction clubs, fans or players for hateful conduct, racism or violent acts itself.
Love the game! Euros, Copa America, World Cup,African Nations etc is way to much, its an own goal by FIFA and this club tournament I know people say the players get paid to much and I get that but playing too much football is killing it.Let them have there end of session rest etc.
@colin coady: Spot on. Was talking about it to a friend the other day. Dortmund are in it and I haven’t a clue what we’re going to do. Don’t have the squad depth or track record of fitness to be playing this tournament. I’d much rather throw a reserves and 18s team over and give them experience. Let the main lads rest up and be ready to rock for the next season. As you said, it’s overkill at this stage! Next of all there’ll be a continental world cup of combined XIs
@colin coady: is this Madrid refusing to play.. or looking for more money?
@Mark Carolan: id say money is hardly an issue for them. Player welfare id hope
@colin coady: money is a big issue for them hence they were pushing for the super league. Tv money in Spain is a pittance.. they play high profile friendlies for big money.. which is what they’ll treat this as.
I’d love it to be player welfare.. but I can’t see it
@Ultán Corcoran: And what do your fellow directors think?
Looks like this article is incorrect and Real are indeed going to take part.
It’s a joke to be asking the top elite players to be playing these. FIFA and UEFA need to look at everything the extra games in champions league. And other competitions the clubs can’t have bigger squads as they have to be within a certain amount. Time to go back to basics. Champions league for league winners only. All European games Knock Out from the start would help but the elite clubs wont have it. Could you imagine City , Utd , Arsenal , Liverpool and Chelsea and the others being told it’s only 1 team to qualify for the champions League there be loads of teams complaining. If they can’t do that they need to limit the teams to the max of 3.
This is fake news. Story taking out of context. Madrid will be taking part.