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Forty-eight games down, 15 to go.

FIFA’s new, engorged Club World Cup has completed its group stage, 16 clubs are on their way home and, over the next fortnight, the remaining 16 will tussle to lift a trophy so gaudy even Louis XIV might have turned his nose up at it.

Alongside that (notably heavy) trinket, whoever runs out victorious in East Rutherford in mid-July will also bank themselves a hefty cash prize. The winners of this summer’s tournament will earn a further $74.1million (£54m), including $40m from the final alone, on top of what they have already pocketed from the competition — and much of FIFA’s $1billion prize pot has now been allocated.

Even before the round of 16 begins, we already know where nearly three-quarters of the money will go: $525m in participation fees were doled out before a ball was kicked and, since then, the results of 48 group games and the identification of 16 progressing teams (who each earned $7.5m for doing so) means a further $216m in performance-related prize money has also been apportioned.

A look at the prize money leaders throws up some familiar (some might say obvious) names. Sitting at the top are Manchester City, the only club to exceed $50m so far. Behind them are some of the wealthiest clubs in world football: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, and on it goes.

While the general theme of European clubs hoovering up much of the bounty is true, there is a caveat to the order of things.

Upon announcing how it would distribute the prize pot, FIFA provided participation fee figures for UEFA’s qualifying clubs, but not the amounts each of the 12 clubs would get. UEFA clubs qualified either by winning the Champions League between 2020-21 and 2023-24 or through their coefficient ranking over the same period. Participation fees for European clubs in the Club World Cup were “determined by a ranking based on sporting and commercial criteria”, according to FIFA.

To work out the prize money rankings, we’ve assumed clubs were ordered by their coefficient ranking, although FIFA’s inclusion of “commercial criteria” means our figures might not be exactly right. The Athletic has not been able to establish the exact allocation of participation fees to UEFA clubs.

Regardless of the order, it’s fairly clear European sides will be taking home most of the spoils. The top eight prize money spots are occupied by European clubs and of the $741m allocated, $424.5m (57 per cent) has gone to UEFA clubs. On average, the 12 competing clubs from football’s richest continent have earned $35.4m apiece this summer.

Behind them, CONMEBOL’s South American teams have picked up an average of $23.9m each, as Brazil’s four competing teams lost just one of their 12 group games and all four qualified for the knockout rounds. The failure of the Argentinian sides to do the same, however, brought CONMEBOL’s average down.

The distribution of participation fees ensured Europe’s clubs would always get the biggest slice of the prize. It speaks volumes that Porto and Atletico Madrid were knocked out at the group stage but have earned more than Al Hilal, Inter Miami and Monterrey, who have reached the last 16.

Yet between them, the six CONMEBOL teams have banked $143.3m, just under a fifth of the prize pot distributed so far. The remaining four confederations have earned $173.2m combined.

The five Concacaf clubs’ earnings total $71.8m, even as Pachuca and Seattle Sounders, who both lost all three of their group games, failed to build on their $9.6m in participation fees.

Of the three MLS teams competing, only Inter Miami remain, having generated $21.1m before Sunday’s meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

In theory, Miami, Seattle and Los Angeles FC each get to enjoy their respective sums, with the prize money remaining in club hands rather than going into a central MLS pot. Less clear is where it will go next. A dispute between MLS, acting on the three clubs’ behalf, and the MLS Players Association over player bonuses — subject to a cap that the money from the Club World Cup far exceeds — remains ongoing.

Returning to those Brazilian clubs, this summer’s tournament has offered quite the boon to at least two of them. Flamengo and Palmeiras already lead the revenue stakes back home, but based on the most recent figures, fellow Club World Cup participants Fluminense and Botafogo were sixth and eighth among their domestic rivals. Each of them has earned $26.7m, a huge proportion of their usual revenues.

For Fluminense, it’s over a third of their $74m turnover in 2024. For Botafogo, the boost is even higher; their prize money from the last fortnight is almost half of the $55m they generated across the whole of 2023 (they are yet to publish 2024 financials).

Get past their respective hurdles of Serie A side Inter and domestic rivals Palmeiras, and each will bank a further $13.1m, as will anyone else who makes the quarter-finals.

A huge amount of money has already been divvied up across this summer’s 32 Club World Cup teams, but there’s plenty left to play for. A further $259m will be allocated between now and the competition’s end on July 13.

(Top photo: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Liverpool forward Dirk Kuyt has been appointed head coach at Dutch second division club FC Dordrecht.

The appointment comes one week after Kuyt left his role at Beerschot, who were relegated from Belgium’s top flight one year after their promotion under Kuyt.

The 44-year-old, who scored 71 goals across six seasons at Liverpool between 2006 and 2012, has signed a one-year contract at Dordrecht.

“I am looking forward to a new adventure at FC Dordrecht with great pleasure,” Kuyt said in a statement issued by the club.

“I have seen that FC Dordrecht has become a stable club in recent years, a team that plays good and attacking football, but also develops many young talents. I’m looking forward to getting started as soon as possible.”

Kuyt previously spent six months in charge of ADO Den Haag in the Dutch second division in 2022.

During his playing career, Kuyt was known for his tenacity and adaptability, transitioning from striker to wing-back over the course of his career.

Kuyt’s playing career saw him score 322 goals including spells at FC Utrecht and Fenerbahce, while also having two stints at Feyenoord.

Having retired in 2017, he began work the following year as coach of Feyenoord under-19s.

(TOM GOYVAERTS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

After back-to-back promotions, adopting an eye-catching, attacking style of play, there’s incredible excitement among long-suffering Falkirk fans.

“We’ll respect the league, it’s a really tough league, but we want to go up and mix it,” said 63-year-old McGlynn.

“We know we’ll have to punch above our weight but that’s what we’ve done.

“We’re up for it. We’re there on merit and want to embrace the challenge and be positive in how we go about things.

“We want to maintain the style as best as we possibly can.”

That mentality served Falkirk well after promotion from League One.

In preparation for their Championship-winning season, McGlynn cited the example of Ipswich Town to his squad.

After promotion from England’s third tier, they went straight up again to the Premier League. Falkirk used that template effectively but will look to stop there given the Tractor Boys’ recent relegation.

However, despite often hearing promoted managers speak of survival as the priority, it’s clear Falkirk’s ambitions lie beyond that.

“Who won the league the year before in the Championship,” McGlynn asked rhetorically.

“Dundee United? Where did Dundee United finish? Fourth.

“We can take them as an example. The year before that, was it Dundee. Tony Docherty did remarkably well, they got top six.

“I appreciate they have not been five years in League One but I think there’s an example there that you can go up and do well.”

So what would satisfy McGlynn?

“Top six would be an incredible achievement,” he said without hesitation.

Continuity in the squad has been key to their success and it seems will be a theme again with the experienced Brian Graham and Scott Bain the only additions so far, with a few loan options potentially to follow.

May 2023 proved to be a watershed month for Paris Saint-Germain.

Up to that point, the French giants’ sporting project seemed to be faltering, certainly in relation to their ultimate goal of lifting the Champions League. Serial winners domestically, PSG had reached the point where only success in Europe’s premier club competition could bring them the validation they craved.

The problem they had was that nothing they did seemed to bring them closer. Even the signing of one of the world’s greatest players in Lionel Messi, who joined on a free transfer in August 2021, had not sufficiently moved the dial. If anything, adding the Argentinian to a front line already containing fellow stars Kylian Mbappe and Neymar only served to create additional layers of complexity and dysfunction.

Two years on, they are finally European champions thanks to a 5-0 rout of Inter in Munich last month. A vibrant, youthful side managed by the wily Luis Enrique and spearheaded by a revived Ousmane Dembele seems primed for further success.

Yet there is a recognition at PSG that none of this would have been possible without the cultural reset that happened at the end of that 2022-23 campaign.

The key moment in PSG’s journey to becoming European champions came immediately after the abject 3-1 defeat to Lorient and had Messi at its centre.

The Argentinian featured heavily in the game, completing the full 90 minutes, but did not report with his team-mates for training the following morning. Instead, he flew to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh to engage in ambassadorial duties for the wealthy Gulf nation.

Messi’s unauthorised absence was problematic on many levels.

In a sporting sense, it was seen by the PSG hierarchy as another sign that key players were putting their own interests above those of the club. The Argentinian’s camp has always maintained that they gave PSG enough warning of his absence, but that too was a source of contention.

There was also the fact that he had travelled to a country, Saudi Arabia, that has often had a fractious relationship with Qatar, the home of PSG’s owner, Qatari Sports Investments (QSI).

Messi was handed a two-week suspension and docked pay. It was a tough, risky stance, but it laid the groundwork for what was to follow.

The French club has always maintained that the issue was sporting rather than geopolitical, and that it was a moment in which QSI realised something urgently needed to change. The message now is that no player is bigger than the collective.

Messi left at the end of that season, his contract allowed to expire, while Neymar also departed. Mbappe, the final member of the trio, signed for Real Madrid last summer.

The fallout from Messi’s unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia led to protests from PSG fans (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Messi never really settled in Paris.

His departure from Barcelona, the club where he had made his name, was abrupt and emotional. When it became apparent he had to leave, he held a farewell press conference in which he broke down in tears. In hindsight, it seemed to be an indicator that all was not well.

News of the Argentinian’s availability sparked a scramble involving most of the world’s biggest and richest clubs. PSG’s arrival in the race was opportunistic. A deal was agreed for Messi to join on a salary of €25million (£21m; $29m) per year, considerably lower than his reported €110m annual salary in Catalonia.

But Barcelona was Messi’s club in a way PSG could never be. Where he was the undisputed star at the Camp Nou, with accommodations made for his quirks and foibles, most around PSG felt Mbappe ruled the roost in the French capital.

Messi poses after signing for PSG in summer 2021 (Sebastien Muylaert/Getty Images)

The acclimatisation to a new country, city and style of play was not easy.

“Those two years (in Paris) were not enjoyable,” he later told Apple Music.

In a separate interview with beIN, he added that it had been “difficult to adapt to the city”, while also pointing to his difficult relationship with sections of the PSG fanbase. He was subjected to boos from the stands after he failed to help them win the Champions League.

While relationships — particularly those with elements of the fanbase — were fractured by the time of Messi’s departure in the summer of 2025, sources close to the French club — who will remain anonymous to protect relationships — maintain there are no regrets over his signing.

Off the field, he played a major role in the growth of PSG’s global brand. He is estimated to have made them about €10m in direct revenue.

Even before he had officially signed, the club made around €8m after a spike in their cryptocurrency portfolio. Within weeks of his arrival, PSG added two partners, Christian Dior and Crypto.com, for a combined €25m. There were record shirt sales, South American partnerships grew, and at least eight new territories signed TV deals.

There is an acceptance that, somewhat unfairly, on the pitch, Messi’s time at the Parc des Princes will be defined by the failure to lead PSG to Champions League glory.

He remained incredibly productive but did not quite reach the heights of his time at Barcelona — 32 goals and 35 assists in 75 PSG games still represents a significant haul, but it is dwarfed by his total of 975 goal involvements in 778 games at the Camp Nou. Messi helped PSG to domestic success, but he was not the game-changer in Europe that they hoped he would be.

There is an admission now that PSG’s cultural overhaul could have come earlier. Yet Messi’s trip to Saudi in 2023 came to be seen as the straw that broke the camel’s back internally; the much-needed catalyst for change.

Time appears to have healed previously strained relationships. PSG are European champions, Messi is settled in Miami, and recent exchanges between him and chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi have been more positive. All parties appear to have moved on.

In public and in private, Al-Khelaifi and the club have stressed the importance of that chapter in PSG’s development and thanked Messi for his role in their ensuing success.

PSG’s social media accounts wished their former player a happy birthday this week. The end of the caption read: “See you Sunday.”

This weekend’s game between Inter Miami and PSG in Atlanta will be the first time Messi has faced one of his former clubs.

All eyes will be on the Mercedes-Benz Arena to see how he fares.

Messi has found it much easier to acclimatise to life in Miami.

He lives in a quiet part of Fort Lauderdale, away from the glare of the media, and has family nearby.

He socialises with his former Barcelona team-mates Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez, and has also been known to spend time with David and Victoria Beckham. Messi was consulted by the Miami hierarchy before the hiring of his ex-Barcelona team-mate Javier Mascherano as head coach last year.

His impact on American soccer, both on and off the pitch, has been considerable.

Messi’s time in Miami has been happier than his spell in the French capital (Rich Storry/Getty Images)

Even at 38, he remains capable of taking games away from opponents single-handedly. He was the MLS MVP last year and his arrival has helped Inter Miami top $200m in annual revenues, more than tripling their 2022 top line.

The club are now valued at $1billion by Sportico, up 74 per cent on 2022. According to ESPN, Messi’s Inter Miami shirt is also the biggest seller in sportswear giant Adidas’ portfolio.

There is a sense that Messi is increasingly gearing up for life after his playing career. He continues to expand his commercial portfolio and starred in both Apple TV’s 2025 Super Bowl commercial and the promotion of the new Bad Boys film.

Inter Miami are likely to be Messi’s final professional club, with the Argentinian set to take on a co-owner position after retirement. The transition from sporting star to something more transcendent is already well under way.

But first, there is some unfinished business in the pink of Miami and a reunion with PSG, the former club who have forged a path to success without him.

(Top photo: Patrick Hertzog/AFP via Getty Images)

Manchester City look like themselves again. Not because Rodri is back, not because they are the only team at the Club World Cup who ended with a perfect group-stage record, but because Pep Guardiola’s side are carving teams apart from out wide again.

“I liked the way we did it,” Guardiola said after the 5-2 win against Juventus.

Their opponents had only conceded eight in 11 games under Igor Tudor before facing City. The prospect of trying to cut open a stubborn 5-4-1 block in the Orlando heat could have become torturous quite quickly.

City made it look rather easy, even without Erling Haaland for the first 45 minutes. Omar Marmoush was the focal point instead.

Juventus mixed their out-of-possession approach — man-to-man in the high press, and a 5-4-1 mid-block where the centre-backs were relatively touch-tight but the midfielders defended zonally — and City showed flexibility too.

When building up in their own half, Jeremy Doku and Savinho, City’s wingers, drifted inside and became No 10s close to Marmoush. This made space for full-backs Matheus Nunes and Rayan Ait-Nouri to push on.

The risk was leaving big spaces out wide that could be exploited in transition, by Juventus’ wing-backs especially. Guardiola, as he always will be, was full of praise when this did not happen. He loved “the patience to make a lot of passes to be calm.”

Savinho and Doku’s narrow positioning looked to be less about getting them on the ball centrally and more about pinning Juventus’ outside centre-backs deep. This would create a problem when a midfielder wanted to jump and press a City defender — it would create space for Rodri, Bernardo Silva or Tijjani Reijnders.

In Juventus’ half, City flipped their wide scheme. The wingers went wide and full-backs narrow. This gave extra cover and set Doku and Savinho up for one-v-one scenarios.

City were good at not rushing crossing scenarios (just four in the first 27 minutes), partly because it made less sense without Haaland, and they could wear Juventus down with a short passing game and off-ball runs.

That desire for quality runners is something City have recruited for. Last December, about halfway through the Premier League season, (when adjusted for possession) they had attempted the fewest overlaps and and fewest passes to runners in-behind.

This game, and the first three goals, showed the added quality that comes from Doku when he has Ait-Nouri’s attacking support, and how effective a pairing Nunes and Savinho are.

City’s opener came in classic fashion. Often, the best time to pick the lock of a compact defence is when the defence jumps as the attacking side recycles the ball.

Here, Ait-Nouri becomes a second No 6 as play is connected from right to left: Nunes, to Rodri, to Ait-Nouri. If the passage seems harmless enough, that’s because it is.

But this move was 2021-22 City-esque in bringing the tempo of the game down before immediately slicing opponents open.

Ait-Nouri recognises wing-back Alberto Costa is jumping forward to Doku. He is so focused on shutting the Belgian down that he moves outside the vertical line of the ball.

The Algerian international splits the back line inside Costa, with a straight pass for Doku’s diagonal run.

Doku cuts in and curls a far-post finish beyond Michele Di Gregorio. City have good box occupation too: Savinho has locked off the back post for rebounds, Marmoush is on the penalty spot and Rodri has arrived late should a cutback be on.

City’s second came 15 minutes after Teun Koopmeiners had equalised following an Ederson error playing out against the press; there were multiple times he picked a bad pass and executed it poorly, but City more than compensated in attack.

On one of the rare occasions that Juventus doubled up out wide, City exploited it. Savinho and Rodri are playing two-v-three, and there is little protection for Juventus in the left half-space.

This makes Nunes the dangerous runner from deep.

Juventus are too passive, and Savinho has the time and space to thread a diagonal pass outside left wing-back Filip Kostic.

Nunes makes the straight run behind Koopmeiners (a reverse of the straight pass and diagonal run from Doku for the opener).

The approach play is excellent and earns the luck of an own goal from Pierre Kalulu. City have four plus Nunes in the box, fairly well-spaced, though nobody makes a penetrative run beyond the defensive line — the biggest downside to not having Haaland on the pitch.

City completed four through balls against Juventus. They only managed more in three Premier League matches in 2024-25 and their most in a Champions League game last term was four away to Sparta Prague.

Haaland came on at half-time and Nicolo Savona stayed deeper defending him. He almost scored within a minute of the restart when Bernardo slipped a diagonal pass for Savinho’s straight run inside Savona, and his low back-post ball was just out of Haaland’s reach.

The third goal was the pick of the bunch for how City manipulated and dismantled Juventus’ man-for-man pressing.

Here, City show flexibility again as Nunes has moved into midfield and Savinho is wide. Weston McKennie’s jump to Ruben Dias forces the wide pass, and City’s midfield rotates like clockwork.

Nunes’ run — for a possible first-time Savinho pass in behind — takes Koopmeiners away.

This allows Reijnders to drop in and receive from Savinho. The Dutch international was marked by Kalulu, but ended up between two Juventus players and neither wanted to go with him.

Reijnders drives to the edge of the final third in a five-v-five. Haaland has already moved into Savona’s blind spot.

Koopmeiners has done well to track Nunes’ run but his body shape is awkward and — as with Costa for the first goal — he is outside the vertical line of the ball.

A straight pass from Reijnders; a diagonal run from Nunes.

The full-back gets his assist (his cross for Kalulu’s own goal is not counted) for Haaland’s tap-in.

The win means City avoid Real Madrid in the round of 16. There is a potential for a repeat of the 2023 Champions League final in the quarter-finals: the winner of Inter and Fluminense face City or Al Hilal.

“It has been a long time since we had a performance like this on and off the ball,” Guardiola said. “This is just one game, but I think the players felt again what it was like to be a good team.

“The belief always comes from your performances, not your past.”

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