With tomorrow's 'play-off' between the Egyptians of Al Ahly and the Oceanian champions of Auckland City, the Club World Cup gets underway, hosted by Morocco for the third time in its history.
In Fifa's intentions this will be the last edition with the current formula which provides for the participation of seven teams, i.e. the six champions of the various continental competitions plus the one that won the national title in the country hosting the tournament.
By chance, the Moroccan champions, the Wydad Casablanca of the man who then coached the national team at the World Cup, Walid Regragui, was also the winner of the last African Champions League, so Al Ahly was also invited to participate, by Wydad he had been beaten in the final of Africa's top club competition.
As far as Fifa is concerned, one cannot fail to mention the announcement by its president Gianni Infantino, who during Qatar 2022 made it known that from 2025 the Club World Cup will see the participation of as many as 32 teams, without giving further details.
It is the development of a project that should have started as early as 2021 with a club World Cup with 24 teams to be held in China.
Everything then faded away due to the pandemic, but now the international football body, always on the hunt for new entries, tries again and indeed increases the number of participants, all this despite the clear opposition of the world footballers' union FifPro, according to which he already plays too much, and also from UEFA.
In the meantime, the old formula is played, with seven teams and European champion Real Madrid as the big favourite.
If Carlo Ancelotti's team triumphs in the final on 11 February it will be the eleventh consecutive time that the tournament has been won by a European club.
The last time that didn't happen was in 2012 when the Brazilians of Corinthians, coached by Tite, beat Chelsea in the final.
Real, on the other hand, have already won the Club World Cup four times (once in Morocco, in 2014) and will now attempt five times.
To annoy him should above all be the Flamengo champion of South America, thanks to the Gabigol-Pedro attack couple.
The cariocas have lost the coach of the Libertadores triumph, Dorival Junior, but they are particularly keen on this competition, which they have already 'risk' of winning in 2019 when they lost to Liverpool in the final but they definitely deserved a better fate.
In the semifinals, Rio's favorite team will play against Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal or Wydad Casablanca, while rivals Real Madrid will come out of the Auckland City-Al Ahly-Seattle Sounders trio.
In any case, it will be a tournament to follow, also due to the fact that spectators in the stadiums will be able to listen live, with radios like those distributed in rugby test matches,
step into the future, waiting to see if the 'elephantiac' project of the Club World Cup will go through, as Infantino likes it.