Club World Cup serves as 2026 dry run amid heat and pitch concerns

NEW YORK :The inaugural 32-team Club World Cup wrapped up on Sunday with plenty of lessons learned for organisers FIFA, with the tournament in the United States, won by Chelsea, acting as a preview of the 2026 World Cup.

A record 48 teams will descend on co-hosts United States, Canada and Mexico next year for the quadrennial spectacle, with 104 matches on the schedule, up from just 64 the last time the tournament was held in 2022 in Qatar.

In anticipation, FIFA expanded the Club World Cup this year to more than four times its original size with 32 teams, in a format that mimicked what fans can expect next year.

"It's a dry run for FIFA," said Alan Rothenberg, the former president of U.S. Soccer who was responsible for overseeing the World Cup the last time it was held in the U.S., in 1994.

"There were some mistakes early on and some issues early on but presumably they have now learned their lesson on how to stage a tournament in multiple cities in this vast country of ours. So I think it's going to make it a lot smoother from here on out for '26 because they now have experience."

Organisers faced criticism from players, fans and coaches for a range of issues from pitch conditions to scheduling to heat, with some games played to packed stands and others to sparse crowds baking in temperatures of 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29°C) and higher.

Global players' union FIFPRO said the heat, in particular, should "serve as a wake-up call", with organisers pressured to schedule matches earlier in the day to accommodate the extraordinary scale of the tournament.

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez described the temperatures as "very dangerous" to play in.

"Every criticism that we receive is a source for us to study, to analyse, to see what we