Club World Cup: Captain Kimmich (right) comes directly from the national team and, unlike Bayern coach Kompany (left), no stress problem.
Photo: Imago/Silas Schüller
The Adventure Club World Cup in the USA for the first tour group of FC Bayern started on Tuesday, and the ten-hour outward flight started in the early afternoon. Some national players are supposed to meet on Thursday and then prepare for the new tournament with 32 teams from all continents with their colleagues. The newcomers Jonathan Tah and Tom Bischof can also play along from the start after the Munich -based transfer windows have been used for this, and paid six -digit transfer fees for both players. On July 1st, both would have come free.
The Munich team in Orlando have to get used to temperatures of more than 30 degrees including high humidity. A short “recovery session” is planned for acclimatization for starting training this Wednesday. The gentle start fits that the families of the players can travel and initially stay in the base camp, which is like the training area in Walt Disney World Resort.
FC Bayern travels with the highest demands. “We want to win the tournament,” said President Herbert Hainer. CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen hopes that FC Bayern will “be the first to engravate on this trophy”. But nothing becomes of it. The signature of FIFA President Gianni Infantino was immortalized by engraving. As inspiration for the trophy, “the great discoverers, the periodic system, the astronomy and the Voyager Golden Records sent into space,” according to FIFA. For Infantino, the cup that can be changed by key is “a revolutionary symbol of a golden, new future for club football, inspired by the past”.
Critics see it completely differently. They fear that the gradient in the national leagues will be further tightened by the club World Cup. FC Bayern alone will flow almost 30 million euros, with the second German participant Borussia Dortmund it is six million fewer. In the event of winning the title, the Munich team could take more than 110 million euros.
Clubs such as that of FC Bayern, for example, who are constantly playing in the Champions League, are already financially traveling in completely different spheres than most other clubs in the Bundesliga. In the season that has just expired, the Munich team was around 20 times more value than that of the promoted Holstein Kiel, which then descended again. Due to the further immense income, the financial scissors will continue to differ. Because the financial incentives of the club World Cup outweigh the sporting, it is above all earn a departure for the Munich.
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The games should only be really interesting in the KO phase. At the start in Group C, FC Bayern will play in Cincinnati against Auckland City on June 15, the opponent from New Zealand is an amateur club and has a lower squad market than the third division club SC Verl. The Boca Juniors from Argentina have a sonorous name, but should also only be competitive in Miami on June 20. The value of her squad corresponds approximately to that of FC St. Pauli. The third group opponents Benfica Lisbon could be most dangerous on June 24th in Charlotte, which is around Eintracht Frankfurt’s level at the squad market value.
Another debate of the tournament revolves around the strain on the players. However, they usually don’t want to get involved. National player Joshua Kimmich, who has just played the Nations League final tournament, says he is looking forward to every game. He refers to his colleagues in England and Spain who have to play more league and cup games. In contrast, coach Vincent Kompany, who was once involved in the FIFPRO union union, expressed concerns. Last September, he even renewed his demand to introduce an upper limit on games per season: “This protects the health of the players, but also the interests of the clubs.” This should not have come across with his employer because of the financial interests. In the meantime, Kompany prefers to speak of anticipation to the club World Cup.
Perhaps the debate flares up in autumn when FC Bayern players may be marked by fatigue and injuries and the record champions have to take a defeat against FC St. Pauli in everyday league life.