How have global football fans embraced Club World Cup?

Fluminense reached the Club World Cup semi-finals before losing to Chelsea

Amid a cacophony of European cynicism, Fifa hype and roaring transfer gossip, the newly expanded Club World Cup has had a tough time finding its place.

Despite more than a million empty seats due to selecting stadia that were larger than the interest, an average attendance of nearly 39,000 is just a few hundred below the Premier League and Bundesliga last season.

And while many fans in Europe have been fantasising about dream signings, elsewhere others shrugged off unsociable kick-off times to embrace the tournament.

'The craziest time in our football lives'

Al-Hilal recorded a shock win over Manchester City in the last 16

"There was not a single place that didn't have the Al-Hilal game on, and everyone was off the streets and watching it," says Fayad, a 25-year-old content creator in Riyadh, recalling the quarter-final between Saudi Arabia's most successful club and Brazil's Fluminense.

"The freeway was so empty. On a Friday night, that never happens, not even during Ramadan."

Al-Hilal's Club World Cup adventure included a 1-1 draw with Real Madrid and a memorable 4-3 last-16 defeat of Manchester City after extra-time that gripped at least 1.5m viewers, even though it kicked off at 04:00 Saudi time.

Both games were on Dazn, the exclusive global broadcaster who sublicensed some matches to local TV companies like MBC Group, a pan-Middle East broadcaster.

Dazn don't release viewing figures and neither Fifa nor any sublicensed broadcasters replied to enquiries.

But according to analysis by Media Rating Company in Saudi Arabia, 5.1m people have watched the 25 games broadcast by MBC Group in the kingdom, with the 22:00 kick-off against Real Madrid the highest at 2.2m.

By contrast, in the only figures released by Channel 5 for their coverage, a peak of 1.6m watched Chelsea's opening match against LAFC in an 20:00 BST kick-off.

Fayad watched Hilal's games in his local cafe. So many had the same idea that everyone had to pay a $30 entry fee, which came with a drink and a pastry or shisha.

"Fans and staff were all wearing the Al-Hilal shirt," he says. "Everyone's anxious. In the Real Madrid game, everyone was like, 'don't talk to me, I'm trying to focus on the game'.

"But the Man City one was absolutely fantastic. The game finishes around 7am and then everyone's out in Riyadh, beeping their horns, no-one wants to sleep, you've just got this big adrenaline hit.

"It was absolutely euphoric. Just the craziest 45-75 minutes in our football lives."

Fans gather at a cafe in Riyadh at 04:00 to watch Al-Hilal

'It was only on a video game - now it's real'

But Hilal's fun was ended in the quarter-finals by Fluminense, some of whose fans watched on Copacabana beach.

"Everybody was singing the stadium songs like we were there," says Bruno Stefano, a 36-year-old self-proclaimed Fluminense fanatic.

"Even if you cannot be [in the US] because it's too expensive or you're working, you try to live the same environment by going to these fan-fests and being among yours."

The Copacabana fan-fest has hosted around 100,000 across the tournament. The highest attendance has been 10,000, it's full capacity, for Bayern Munich's 4-2 win over Flamengo.

"For us, it's a chance to play against the best in the world," Bruno added. "It's a joke in Brazil that if Fluminense play Inter Milan, it's only on a video game. But now it was real."

More than real, because Flu eliminated the 2025 Champions League finalists 2-0 in the last 16.

Thousands of fans took to Copacabana beach to watch Brazil's teams in action

Brazilians have arguably bought into the Club World Cup more than fans from any other nation.

"It's almost like a World Cup. I am really more attached to Fluminense than the Brazil national team so it's better to be in the Club World Cup," says Bruno.

"Everybody is saying it's a shame that it's ending because they were watching four matches a day, even Borussia Dortmund against Ulsan HD, because we like football."

That mood was boosted by the quartet of Brazil's clubs - Fluminense, Flamengo, Botafogo and Palmeiras - reaching the knockout rounds, with the former making it to the last four.

"Fluminense played Manchester City two years ago. We lost 4-0 so we always had in mind that the Europeans are far ahead of us. But now, we see that we are not that far behind. For us, it's somehow a recovery of Brazilian pride," says Bruno.

'People are more into Women's Euros'

Away from the caffeinated and the caipirinha'd, the appeal for many was the unusual match-ups of teams whose orbits would never normally cross.

Speaking on the World Football podcast, Real Madrid fan Eduardo Alvarez felt the tournament lived up to his positive expectations.

"In some matches, there were just not enough fans or the pitches were not up to the standard we are used to seeing, but the fact is that it's football, and football is fun," he says.

"When you have the chance to see Flamengo-Bayern Munich or Inter Miami and PSG, a fantastic Manchester City-Al-Hilal [match], I think the tournament has been a lot of fun."

But in Spain, where one game a day was sublicensed to Mediaset Espana channels, Alvarez's compatriots have found it hard to turn their attention away from transfer rumours.

"There's a bit of that, sure. The silly season is huge in Spain. No Barcelona [in the tournament] and Atletico were eliminated in the first round so a good portion of Spanish fans have been less interested," he says.

"But the most interesting matches have been followed, no doubt, and the semi-finals were a hit."

In France, where terrestrial channel TF1 has only been given two matches by Dazn, one of which is the final, other sport has overshadowed most of the tournament, according to Paris-based journalist Bruno Ahoyo.

"People were more into the Women's Euros and the women's friendlies [beforehand] than the PSG games," Ahoyo says.

"But from the PSG-Bayern game [in the quarter-finals], I started to see jerseys in the city. I heard people on the Metro speaking about it, especially the kids who are on vacation now, asking their parents how they can watch it."

Mamelodi Sundowns acknowledged fans who travelled to the US with a dance following their 0-0 draw with Fluminense

Like France, South Africa had a single representative in perennial champions Mamelodi Sundowns, but time difference and other competing sports kept down the viewing numbers, according to Cape Town-based journalist Mo Allie.

"Some games started at midnight and 3am," he says.

"The tournament has also been overshadowed by the Proteas winning the World Test Championship and you have the rugby Springboks kicking off their international season against the Barbarians and Italy.

"But I tell you what, after Sundowns' performances against Dortmund and Fluminense there's been a lot of pride in the team. Thankfully those games kicked off at reasonable local times."

At the other end of Africa, Moroccan journalist Amine El Amri says fans still had players to cheer for, even after their club Wydad were knocked out in the group stage.

"People kept watching, but to follow the Moroccan stars Achraf Hakimi and Yassine Bounou mainly, as Brahim Diaz is not playing that much with Real Madrid."

Meanwhile, Lagos-based sports commentator Babatunde Koiki says that many Nigerian fans approached the Club World Cup from an entirely different angle.

"The fan response to it has been rather interesting. Because of the preponderance of sports betting in Nigeria, football fans know quite a lot of the participating clubs, especially the non-European ones," he says.

"And with the end of the European football season, the tournament was the primary source of betting odds for them. So from what I gather, many people followed the tournament primarily for this reason."

'It was the ultimate fairy tale'

Urawa Reds lost all three group games - to Monterrey, Inter Milan and River Plate

One of the eye-catching aspects of the early games was the noisy and energetic support by Urawa Reds fans. Japan's best-supported club went home with no points but still took $9.5m for turning up.

"Among the fans, there was an element of pride that their team was playing on the world stage. The players, too, were excited about playing on a different stage," says Sean Carroll, author of Between the Lines: Navigating the World of Japanese Football.

"There were an awful lot of Reds fans there, so the Reds fans here would have been watching the games as well. But I don't think many people are waking up at 4am to watch Real Madrid play Borussia Dortmund. It's a fixture that happens in the Champions League every other year anyway."

In New Zealand, where most kick-off times fell during the day, journalist Michael Burges says part-timers Auckland City's 10-0 defeat by Bayern Munich sparked a lot of interest.

"There was a curiosity factor as they were an amateur team, but a lot of people outside football probably had barely heard of them," he explains.

"After the 10-0, everybody had - even my builder who admitted he knows nothing about football. It was the talk of the town for a day or so - just because of that bizarre scoreline - and increased interest in their next two games. It also made the 1-1 draw with Boca become the ultimate fairy tale."

But what about the future of this tournament?

Manchester United and East Bengal fan Sanghapriyo Mandal, in the largely untapped but potentially lucrative market of India, has this advice for Fifa.

"A reason why it hasn't had a huge response [here] is that clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Barcelona did not play. They have a lot of fans here.

"These fans won't watch matches of South American or Asian teams, but they will do anything for their clubs.

"I think some clubs should be invited and some should have to qualify."