Club World Cup low attendances show fans want quality over quantity – PFA chief

Low attendances at some of the early Club World Cup matches show fans are turned off when football’s bosses place quantity above quality, players’ chief Maheta Molango has said.

Chelsea’s opening match in Atlanta on Monday was watched by 22,137 people in a stadium able to hold 71,000, while just 3,412 people watched Tuesday’s match between Ulsan HD and Mamelodi Sundowns in Orlando.

Molango, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, has previously said football risks “killing the product” through overexposure, and said on Wednesday these sparse crowds were a sign of fans becoming turned off by the volume of football.

“In many ways, football is like any other industry. If you keep increasing the amount of product while diluting its quality, customers will always respond the same way,” he told the PA news agency.

“It’s bad for business. Other major sports growing their global reach understand that.”

Player unions including the PFA are involved in legal action against FIFA over what they see as a failure to adequately consult over the international fixture calendar. Unions believe FIFA is placing player welfare in jeopardy.

Chelsea and Manchester City will have just a five-week break between the tournament ending and the new Premier League season starting if they go all the way, even though medical and conditioning experts agree players need a minimum of eight weeks to rest and retrain between seasons.

“Too many games and a lack of proper rest periods mean that quantity is already impacting quality,” Molango added.

“Medical professionals have highlighted the negative impact the current calendar is having on players, and the steps that need to be taken to address it.

“But even if you believe that players can play this number of games with no proper break, it doesn’t mean you should want them to.

“Players tell us they’re approaching games fatigued, and we’re regularly seeing long-term injuries directly affect matches and tournaments, with players either missing out or unable to perform at their best.”

There have been some big crowds at the 32-team tournament in the United States, with over 80,000 fans watching Paris St Germain beat Atletico Madrid on Sunday, and FIFA says it has sold close to 1.5million tickets for the tournament so far.

FIFA said 340,000 fans had attended the first eight matches, which it said was a “powerful demonstration of club football’s global appeal”. It said four of the five top-selling group stage matches were still to come.

The prize money on offer is huge, with Manchester City or Chelsea standing to earn almost £100million if they win it.