The FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ has kicked off a golden era of club football, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, as he addressed the world's media in New York, United States, on the eve of the final between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain. Mr Infantino added that, although it would be an all-European match, five continents would be represented among the players of the two squads at the MetLife Stadium. "The golden era of global club football has started… We can say definitely that this FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge, huge, huge success from all different points of view," said Mr Infantino during the event at Trump Tower. "We heard it first, some time ago, even some months ago, some weeks ago, ‘Well, it will never happen’. Well, it did happen, and it happened successfully,” he said. “We heard, ‘Nobody will come to the games’ and we had, with the final tomorrow, almost two and a half million spectators in the stadiums. This is around 40,000 per match. There is no league in the world, except for the Premier League in England [that] has an average of 40,000 spectators. We were hearing, 'Nobody will broadcast this.' Well, we concluded a one-of-a-kind revolutionary contract with DAZN allowing the streaming of every single second of every single match in every corner of the world for free.”

"We heard, as well, that financially it would not work, it would be a flop, ‘Nobody’s interested’. Well, I can say that we generated over (USD) 2 billion, almost (USD) 2.1 billion revenue. With this competition, for 63 matches, that makes an average of USD 33 million per match. There is no other club competition in the world today that comes anywhere close to a value of USD 33 million per match. So, it is already the most successful club competition in the world, from all different measurements." Players from 72 countries have been in action at the tournament, with 39 nationalities among the goalscorers, while 16 countries will be represented among the two clubs in the final. These include Georgia, through Paris winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who have never played at a FIFA World Cup™. "What is, for me, as FIFA President, a matter of pride and joy is that in these two teams, who are two big European teams, we have, actually, players from five different continents playing," the FIFA President said. "We have Asians, we have Africans, we have South Americans, we have North Americans and, of course, we have Europeans. And this is a source (of) immense pride, not only for FIFA, of course, (but) for football, for these countries, for these continents who are present in the biggest event.”

Mr Infantino thanked the entire football community including the six confederations "who believed in this project", the European Club Association (ECA), the participating clubs, players, coaches, officials and fans. "I think this is the moment to say, ‘thank you’ to everyone because together we created something new, something which is here to stay, something which is changing the landscape of club football, and something which puts so many clubs and so many fans from all over the world on the global map," he said. "Football is the global sport. It’s the most popular sport in the world, we know that. Now, we can prove it, not just with the (FIFA) World Cup which will take place next year here in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico, but also with this new competition with the (FIFA) Club World Cup, which really brings together teams, players and fans from all over the world.”

Mr Infantino had some special words for the fans. "The fans from all over the world were absolutely fantastic; we had full stadiums, we had, also, stadiums that were, of course, less full, but everything happened in a joyful atmosphere. We didn’t have one single incident," he said. Teams from all parts of the world had been competitive. "Teams from six different continents [picked up] at least one point in this competition. Teams from all continents scored at least a goal. Teams from Mexico, from the United States, from Saudi Arabia passed to the next round," he said. “We have seen how America has embraced all different communities from the entire world.”

And he emphasised that it provided an opportunity for players from every corner of the globe to appear on the global stage, such as those from the OFC representatives, Auckland City. "Auckland (City), to some extent, as well represents, like, 99.9% of football players and football fans – all of us who would like to be like them and who will never ever have a chance and (then), suddenly, well, one of us, or a few of us, have been able to play against these guys and it must be a place for everyone," he said.