Australia aims to follow USA in 'building' FIFA's Club World Cup

MIAMI: Australia's football chief James Johnson believes his country can help FIFA turn their new Club World Cup into a global success as he seeks to get in the driving seat for the bidding process.

Australia last month opted not to bid for the 2034 World Cup after facing competition from Saudi Arabia, who are the only bidders for the tournament.

But Johnson, CEO of Football Australia, believes the new 32-team Club World Cup, which will debut in the United States in 2025, would more than compensate for missing out on the game's biggest event.

"I'm very excited by this," Johnson told AFP in an interview on Monday ahead of this week's Soccerex conference in Miami.

"There's an opportunity there. 32 teams, 64 matches, played over one month. We've got the biggest teams in the world coming together and fighting it out to be world champion of the Club Football. It's extremely interesting," he said.

The current Club World Cup features just seven clubs from six confederations and has struggled to grab attention.

Johnson believes though that once the new tournament, with 12 elite European clubs and eight top teams from South America, has made an impact in the USA, its prestige will be transformed.

"The competition needs to be built. We can't wait to see what happens here in the United States in 2025. We believe that we can help build that competition, take it to a new level, like what we saw with the Women's World Cup in Australia," he added.

European clubs, fans and broadcasters have shown little interest in the old Club World Cup but Johnson believes that will change with the chance to compete in a full tournament outside their traditional markets.

"Australia is a great market for European clubs. Every summer, European summer, we have