Club World Cup 'most successful club competition in the world', insists Infantino
The Club World Cup has had its detractors, but Gianni Infantino insists the tournament has been a resounding success.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has declared the Club World Cup as the most "successful club competition in the world", despite acknowledging some criticisms.
The first iteration of the newly revamped 32-team tournament comes to a close on Sunday, with Paris Saint-Germain contesting the final against Chelsea at MetLife Stadium.
Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp described it as the "worst idea ever implemented in football", while Jude Bellingham and Enzo Fernandez have been among those to call out the weather conditions during the tournament in the United States.
The BBC reported there have been over a million empty seats during the tournament, with many games producing poor attendances.
But Infantino is steadfast in his belief that the Club World Cup has been a success, claiming it has generated $2billion in revenue (£1.5bn).
Speaking at Trump Tower, he said: "The golden era of global club football has started.
"We can say definitely that this FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge, huge, huge success. Of course, there are a lot of positives, some negatives.
"We respect everyone's opinion. It has been successful. We have had over 2.5 million [people] in the stadium.
"That's around 40,000 spectators per match - there is no league in the world with that number, except the Premier League which, of course, has home teams and these are neutral stadiums.
"We heard financially it would not work, but I can say we generated over $2bn in revenues with this competition.
"We earned on average $33m per match. There is no other cup competition in the world that comes close to $33m per match.
"It is already the most successful club competition in the world with all different measurements."
