Football Daily - FIFA Club World Cup preview

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

Alistair Bruce-Ball is joined by Pat Nevin, Julien Laurens & Conor McNamara live in Miami. Also hear from Auckland City striker Angus Kilkolly on the day jobs the Auckland squad are taking time off from.00:35 What’s it like in Miami right now? 02:15 How are the guys feeling about it? 05:40 How seriously will clubs take it? 07:20 Is this a tournament too far? 09:35 What will FIFA be hoping for? 14:55 Are the best teams at the Club World Cup? 16:40 Who is the favourite? 21:15 Players to be announced onto the pitch one-by-one 24:25 What about the smaller teams? 27:35 Auckland City players have day jobs! 31:20 Who should Man Utd fans support? 33:05 What will make this tournament a success?BBC Sounds / 5 Live commentaries: Sun 1700 England v Slovenia in UEFA U21 Championship, Wed 2000 England v Germany in UEFA U21 Championship.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Welcome to the Inside Track with me, Rick Edwards. This is the podcast that takes you inside Formula One like never before. And I'm Matt Magendie, and thanks to my exclusive access, I'll be getting up close and personal with Red Bull Racing this season. This week, I sit down with one of the team's big bosses, Dr Helmut Marko. I also didn't think that Max would win for championships. He didn't have the success what we expected from him.

Experience Formula One like never before by tuning into the inside track wherever you get your podcasts. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. The Football Daily Podcast. Listen on BBC Sounds. Welcome to the Football Daily, I'm Alistair Bruce Ball. The Club World Cup kicks off this weekend with Manchester City and Chelsea as the two premier league teams in this new look 32 team tournament. Former Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin is with us as is Julien Leroy and joining us from Miami no less is Conor McNamara. First question to you Conor, what does it look like, what does it feel like, what does it

sound like over there? Well look it's Miami alley isn't it? You know this is a great town, you're not gonna come here and sort of say oh doll you know. I mean the blunt sort of question everyone's asking is are they talking about it over there? Yeah. No they're not right but you know this is this is the USA. There are so I mean, the blunt sort of question everyone's asking is, are they talking about it over there? No, they're not, right? But you know, this is the USA. There are so many different attractions, so many competing sports for the national attention. I mean, here in Miami, they've got the Dolphins, of course, the Miami Dolphins, the American

football team, there's Miami Heat, the basketball team. Right now at the moment, in Miami, there've been these finals games of the Stanley Cup, the ice hockey that the Florida Panthers are playing. Now I wouldn't know that was on. I mean someone told me that was on. So it's not like walking down the street there's loads of billboards about the Stanley Cup. So I just think that's the way it is. There are a few billboards, most of them sort of advertising tickets. I still think they're still trying to, you know, fill a few extra seats in the stand. It is a big stadium, the Hard Rock Stadium. I went down there yesterday, it's 67,000 capacity.

If you think about it, Inter-Miami, Messi's team, co-owned by Beckham, their stadium where they normally play, the Chase Stadium, it's like going to Bournemouth. It feels like, I think it's 21,000 capacity. So for them to move into this bigger Hard Rock Stadium is a huge leap. And the comparison I would make, imagine this tournament was being held in England, and let's say Man City, who've got a capacity of around about what, 50 to 60,000. Imagine they had to fill a stadium 170,000, 180,000. Even City with their pedigree, I think would probably struggle to make that sort of a leap. So it is a huge jump. But you know, it's the American, it's the Rasmataz.

I'm sure they'll put on a show, I think this is going to look good tonight. Pat Nevin, first question to you, excited, intrigued or indifferent? Well certainly closer to the latter, fairly indifferent. I'm interested in one way, I'm not particularly interested in the competition but I am interested in where it's going to go because this is political, very political, the fact that FIFA are trying to get the money in. They've tempted all the clubs in with huge sums of money. I mean, it's a massive amount of money.

It's 97 million quid if you actually win it, there's a possibility of getting that much. That's why the clubs are there. They wouldn't have taken the same to go there otherwise. But what the domination of the big clubs, they're trying to grow it as much as possible. FIFA have got a power play going on here to make sure that they are getting the money in and they are selling the rights etc.

Although I note the Zone are giving it out for free this time, so it's not going to cut the imagination of certain areas. But it's what it says about the future. It may well be that this is the future. This is what it's going to be. It's going to be a world league. You know teams are trying, and you know this has been tried before and are different guys. And eventually one day that will be the case and this will maybe will be the start of it. But at the moment, I think there's very limited interest in America.

I think the interest certainly in the UK as far as I'm aware of is fairly limited with a lot of people but we will see the effect that these games have because if you look at purely in terms of the teams that are there you know River, Bayern, Man City, Real Madrid, well that's pretty mouth-watering as long as they're all not too exhausted to play. Pat's left out the European champions there, Jules. My favourite. He did it on purpose, Ali. My favourite, absolutely my favourite. And Jules knows this.

I'm deeply in love with the new PSG. So, yeah, they're all there. So it's mouth-watering in that sense. But we see these players playing at their absolute best because of the end of an exhausting season. So what do you think, Jules, as a football journalist, you know, after the end of an exhausting season. So what do you think Jules, as a football journalist, you know after the end of a long season, how do you feel about this tournament? No, I'm quite excited to be fair boys because I just think we'll have superstars, the big

names will be there and we'll play big clubs like Pat said, you will have match-ups and contests and games between teams that you've never seen facing each other before outside of maybe a few friendlies, meaningless friendlies. So I want to see Bocca against Bayern for example. I want to see those kind of opposition between South America or South American football and European football, African football and North American football. All of that I think is quite interesting because we get to see teams that we not usually see. We're seeing a lot of the Premier League teams, a lot of Champions League or Europa League,

Conference League teams all the time. This time it's a bit different. And you can also see who can really compete with Europe. And let's see if there's a few upset. Let's see how clubs treat this competition in terms of it's half a pre-season, half a very serious tournament where, like Pat just said, you can earn a lot of money. So let's see how coaches deal with it. Rotation, no rotation, do you keep your best players for the best games? Do you give them a bit of a run in every game? I think it'd be quite interesting to see.

But we want to see these teams, Jules, and we don't know. We're going to have to watch this play out. I mean, it really is a complete unknown. Bocca against Bayern, yes, but if they're going at it properly, if it's, you know, proper Bocca against Bayern and not just going through the motions. But maybe as you say, the prize at the end of it means we're more likely to see that. Yeah, I think you're right. And to be fair, certainly from the European clubs' point of view, everybody that I've spoken to around clubs or linked with those clubs said that they're going there to win. Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern, City, Chelsea. They want the money for sure,

because if you earn 100 million on this tournament, this is a top number nine and a top center back. And this is it. The money goes straight into your account. So that is the aspect. But also the fact that it's quite prestigious is the first one. You want to be the first one to win the first Club World world cup you'd have to wait four years to defend your title and for

somebody else to try to go and win it and i think certainly for the european clubs i think that's a bit of an objective i think as well ali just to jump in for teams like rail madrid manchester city are a great example byron to a lesser extent but um you know that disappointing season that they didn't get the top prizes that they were hunting for they they'll still see, you know, Pep Guardiola will 100% say this was a major competition win, and I think there will be a hunger there. Teams like Bayern who want to get to Champions League finals and win that will have been disappointed not to. And you know, compared to, you know, people say, oh, give the players a rest and whatever. We saw with Manchester United, if you're not involved in this, you're off doing some other

kind of Kuala Lumpur Hong Kong exhibition game. And I'm sure if you ask the players which would they prefer to be involved in, that they would want some sort of competitive edge to that. Did I see you shake your head to that, Pat? You certainly did, because the answer which would you prefer? The correct answer is neither. And the reason that's the correct answer is because I know I sound like the Grinch here, okay I get it, I understand it, I have enough interest to watch some of the games and I know that it is probably the future of football. But the massive but is the stresses you're putting on players just now.

FIFA are not going to hold back, they're going to squeeze every single ounce out of the players, unfairly. UEFA are doing the same, the clubs have to do the same, the national associations are seeing friendly internationalists being played when they shouldn't be played and it's clearly the players aren't absolutely up to it and not in peak form and by the way you're cheating the fans who are paying money to go and see that but on top of all that who is going to draw the line and say look you're pushing the players too far and I would ask you these same questions

say after this tournament if Rodri has another real problem and snaps his cruciate or one of the big players gets injured here because he's massively injured like misses this season Who's going to ask the question is what's the reason for it? It's what players have been saying for a long long time You're pushing it too far the envelopes and push too far for too many players especially these big names that chose was mentioned there keep on going to the well too often it's going to have an effect so that's my fear about it but I'm not gonna be a grinch the whole time about it except all the other arguments and discussions and interest yeah I'll look at the highlights program and I want to see those games played against each

other but what I'd like to see is these playing teams playing against each other at their best. Then I'll pay for it. And on that point Connor about the fans and you've already mentioned you know in terms of trying to sell out the stadiums and how difficult that's been you know what have you seen out there in terms of you know fans of clubs that have traveled, that have made the trip to the States? The standout, largest number of fans I've seen is Baca Juniors. You see them with the iconic blue and yellow striped shirts and I've seen a lot of them around so I don't know whether there's a huge Argentinian population that live here

in Miami anyway, which there might well be, but it feels like a few of them have arrived because they played Benfica here in a few days. Going around the streets you don't as much see, you know, football. You see, this is the thing, like, you know, say this was in London or the World Cup or something like that, you'd just expect there would be a buzz about it. I mean, I was in a taxi yesterday and the driver was from some country that speaks French, but he was listening to a French football, you know, program on the radio going through. You just forget the gigantic population here. Even if only 20% of the people have an interest in soccer as they call it, that's still millions and millions and millions of people.

So I think, you know, the Razzmatazz level, you know, if Messi bangs in a free kick tonight, you know, that clip's going to go viral around the world as much as absolutely anything. And I think that's what they're hoping for. A few little standout moments that will sort of, you know, grab the short-term attention for the social media generation that might then maybe drag And I think that's what they're hoping for, a few little standout moments that will sort of grab the short-term attention for the social media generation that might then maybe drag the names in. But to answer your question, yeah, Baca, I've seen a few Benfica fans around, but obviously they don't play for another three or four days, so I would expect that to then increase as we get closer to the kickoff. But all these American cities, and just by the way, it's a point worth

making, is that so many of the stadiums being used here will be part of the World Cup next year so you know the past there was Le Tournoi, there was the Confederations Cup, this competition is kind of playing that role this year of being the warm-up event to the the absolutely huge one next year. And that is also interesting Connor and I don't know how much you can speak to this but obviously politically over there at the moment you know it's a really interesting time so we had the travel bans issued by Donald Trump and his government recently.

We've got obviously protests, unrest on the West Coast of the state. So it feels quite volatile as well. I don't know whether you've got any sort of feeling of that over there in the media or on the ground. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's funny, I travelled from Ireland and traditionally, we always laugh about this, is in Ireland traditionally over the years so many people

used to try and come and pretend they were going on holidays and ended up living here and they actually make you do the immigration in Dublin, because they were sick of turning people back. So even these days you go and you speak, it's as if you're on US soil, you speak to the immigration guy while you're still in Ireland, before you fly over. But look, they let me in, Ali. But yeah, I mean, the more serious political point, I mean, I know there was comments from JD Vance about saying, you know, people come here, enjoy the tournament, but make sure you go home afterwards. You know, that's not very welcoming, is it?

And you know, you can sort of sense that that is sort of simmering away in the background. I think absolutely the makeup of the squads, you even look at the players who play for the American teams. I mean, so many of them will be from immigrant families or have come from, you know, maybe born outside or their parents were born outside the USA and come. So I think the soccer supporting element in the United States are very much of, you know, the populations who are affected by and very interested by this political turmoil at the moment.

I mean, there's a big difference between football or soccer as they call it here, the people who watch that compared to the people who watch the NFL. I think there's a political divide there that's quite evident between the sports. It's interesting times, isn't it, Pat? And again, with that sort of looking ahead in a year's time to going over there for the World Cup and it's it is just so unpredictable. Yeah well I try and predict now and again a football game but not often. I'd never try and predict the American politics. I draw the line at that, it's mad. By the way I dundling when I look at the comment that Connor was making.

Do you know the World Club Championship, whatever you want to call it, has always been a massive thing for the South American clubs. This in the way that it's never quite been for the European clubs. We've never really taken it to the same level. So yeah, you will see Bocca there, you will see Palmares, you'll see River Plate fans. They, for them, it is massive. Of course it would be giving a bloody nose to the Europeans if they can win it as well. So yeah, you're gonna see that. And that's what the man who it's all about, and I'm not saying Messi, I'm saying Infantino, that's what he wants, to make sure

that it holds together an interest for the big stars, they get the kind of clicks in, they get the interest of the younger people. And it's not the people that are sitting there watching it, it's not the people that will be listening to Five Live, it's all over the world. That's what they're looking to get the interest in here. They're looking for massive interest from Africa, they want it from India, they want it from certainly Malaysia and countries down there. So absolutely the case that if that one big moment happens

it'll be okay, they'll love it in South America, we will take notice, but it's the rest of the world that's where they're aiming, that's where they want the eyes and that's where they want the clicks. And Pat we're gonna let you go just just one last quick one just just looking at Chelsea, obviously Liam de Lap is in the squad has recently been signed some other new signings as well. Interested to see how he goes in particular, de Lapp? Yeah, de Lapp is an interesting one. He'd be desperate to show his colours with his new team. He'll get plenty of chances, that's what Chelsea tend to do.

The chances they've created this season have been incredible. Actually, a lot of Chelsea fans will be watching Palmeiras because they've got a player called Estavro,io William who's going to sign for Chelsea after this. Very very big news and very exciting. The Brazilians really hold them very very high. But yeah, a lot of new players coming in at Chelsea to look at but we've said that before. I think they're going to go for it and they're going to go for it bigger than anyone else for as much as the fact That they're American owned and they want to do a bit well in their own country Pat thank you. I imagine you'll be enjoying some golf at some point this summer. Oh

Sometime this summer something this weekend some point very soon Look forward to getting out on a golf course with you soon pat lovely to speak to you former Chelsea and Everton winger, Pat and Evan. We're talking about the FIFA Club World Cup. Jules, Julien arrives with us as well. Just looking at it from the European team's point of view, 12 of them are in there.

I know you've got to find a qualification process for this, but we're talking about sort of the best competition, you know, in club football in the world, but we've not got Liverpool there. We've not got Barcelona there, we've not got Napoli there, all of whom are their domestic champions this season. Yeah, you're right. And also imagine, I don't know, let's say Barcelona had won the Champions League, for example, or Arsenal, who were both in the semi-finals, they would not have qualified

for this Club World Cup. And yet they will be the reigning European champions and not at the club World Cup, which in itself will be completely weird and abnormal. So they probably still have to work on the way you qualify, the coefficient, all of that. But again, you won't know until super late who's the Champions League winner of the season.

So 2029 is the next club World Cup of Pussy because it's every four years and you can't wait that late to have the last team that will come from Europe. So it's a bit complicated but you're right it's quite strange that you don't have a Liverpool, that you don't have a Barcelona, that you don't potentially that you could have missed out on the Champions League winner for this edition there of the Club World Cup and I don't know how you can do it but you can't have too many clubs from England either or too many clubs from Spain you already have two and two and two and that's kind of enough but then yes you miss out on some big names too which means also maybe more fans

traveling Liverpool fans in numbers coming to the US, for example. You're missing out on that and you're missing out on them spending money in the US on the tournament. So it's the first one. So I think they will look at this after and just draw all the conclusions they want and they will have four years to make it better for the next one. Connor, do we do we have a bookies favourites? Do you know? I mean, the European teams highly fancied Paris Paris Saint-Germain, for example, is the European champion so thrilling in the latter stages of the Champions League?

Yeah, all the talk that I've heard in terms of the sort of the betting markets is that the European teams are heavily fancied. Manchester City are right up there. Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich are fancied. I personally think Bayern are going to do well. I was doing some prep for their next game and I was just going down through the squad. I mean, the quality they have in that squad. We know they've been dominating in the Bundesliga, disappointed not to get further in the Champions League. They'll definitely fancy their chances in this. But yeah, I think, you know, the way I would look at it, Ali, is that, you know,

I love the FA Cup every season and Jules mentioned earlier, you know, this competition is putting together teams who don't normally face each other. And that's where I see a bit of an FA Cup element to this. If you were to make the comparison, the analogy, the Minnows, the non-league team in this is like the Aucklanders from New Zealand. Now, some of them are part-time players, they work as estate agents and teachers and all that kind of stuff. But then you've got the South American teams who are very good at talking. I'd say you've got to imagine, El-ly, who played tonight, they are dominant in Africa. They've won the African Champions

League I think three of the last four years. 45 times they've won the Egyptian league. They claim to be the most decorated club in world football. But they very rarely get to play against outside of their continent teams. So I think there's that sort of FA Cup element to this, where you'd love to see the shock. You'd love to see some team that you didn't expect to be in the mix, but as so often happens once we get to the business

end, it's likely to be European clubs dominating just because of the financial might in the cloud. I'll tell you one other thing as well, Ali, that could be a leveler. It is so hot here. Team like Al-Ahly, the Egyptians, they'll be used to that. Obviously, Inter Miami are used to it. They play here all the time, but that could be a little bit of a leveler for the American teams. And it's a pre-emptor to the World Cup next year to see if that big heat, which worked out well for Argentina and Qatar

and whatnot, but if that will affect the European teams here this month. Another leveler is the fact that some teams in the competition will be halfway through the season. If you're an MLS team, if you're Inter Miami or LAFC, you're right in the middle of your season. If you're City, Chelsea, you know, Real Madrid, PSG, a bit less because they had the Champions League final on 31st of May. But for the others, they finished their league on May 15th, so it's been a month since they haven't played together. Whereas the others would have played three days ago or a week ago. And same for other leagues, or the teams from other leagues from other parts of the world

who are either still in their league or just finished their league. And fitness-wise, we'll be certainly more ready than some of the European teams that have stopped playing a month ago, even if some of their players, or most of them are international players, so they would have had the June international break.

But still, it wouldn't be the same in terms of momentum. And it might need a few games for the European clubs and the European players to just get back to match fitness and that kind of energy the sharpness that other clubs who are mid-way through the season already have. What's Louis Henrique said about it Jules before the tournament? He said they want to go for it. It's been a historical season of course for them with the Champions League, the League and the French Cup. You can even add the French Community Shield if you want. That could be another trophy and then you start adding them up for what could be one of the greatest seasons in any club's history really. So they want to go for it. Ousmane Dembele picked up an injury with France unfortunately so he's going to miss the first two games that they have and the first one against Atletico Madrid which is tomorrow at 8 p.m. for us in the UK which is a great great game to

really kick kick on the tournament. It won't be that which is a bit of a blow but I think they want to keep that momentum going and those players are tired they treating this a bit as a preseason some of the families are over so it's a bit of a holiday pre-season, but also a big tournament that they want to go and win, also for the money, also for the Qatar ownership, also from the fact that one of the minority shareholders are also Americans, so the US market is big for PSG. Kevin Durant, for example, the NBA superstar, is a minority shareholder of PSG too. So he's going to be heavily involved. We saw Jimmy Butler, another NBA star,

being quite involved with the team the last few days in the LA PSG house, if you want, as they call it. So they do a lot of marketing around this. For them to go far and hopefully for them winning it is quite important. So, Conor, you're doing first game tonight. Is that right? Your commentator on first game tonight? Is there sort of opening ceremony, plan, razzmatazz, flash, sparkle, all of that?

There is, I'm coming full circle tonight, Ali. So people often say, what's the first gig you ever went to, right? The first gig that I ever, ever, ever went to, my dad got me tickets to see Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. I think it was the RDS in Dublin, I mean late 80s. And anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is that Emilio Estefan, who was the Miami Sound Machine, husband of Gloria Estefan, he's written the sort of theme song for the concert. That's going to be the big song played in the opening ceremony.

There's three or four musical acts. So yeah, I'm feeling very much, I want to wear my Don Johnson jacket tonight. And I'm very much getting the Miami mood. And yeah, I can tell you one or two little things. I don't think it can give me away any state secrets here, but the way they're going to do it is very much the American style. So we're used to the teams all coming out together. Here it'll be sort of a one by one, the way that they come out for the Super Bowl or whatnot.

The players will be kind of announced onto the pitch one by one and when they line up it won't be sort of all facing towards the stand. They line up facing each other. So just to figure out, and that's what I think this tournament's going to be. Very, very familiar because it's football, it's all the superstar names we know, but also different. You know, and look, I like that and you know, people don't like change. You know, we always say when a new priest in Ireland comes to be the bingo caller in the parish hall, people say, that's not the way you do bingo, you're not as good as the old guy.

And then, of course, he becomes the accepted bingo caller. So I think few things are going to irk people and say, hang on, this isn't football, this isn't how it's supposed to be. And yet one or two of these ideas that we see will probably end up getting incorporated in European football because they'll say hey it's a good idea. Yeah that is not an analogy. Ali as well. Yes, go on. I was going to say one of your favourite singers, French Montana, Ali, he's also singing tonight for you to watch. And French Montana was born in Morocco and he's in Casablanca so he's a massive Withered fan.

And Withered, one of the teams that many people might not have heard of, but they've been very good in Morocco, a bit like Esperance Tunis in Tunisia, who will face Chelsea, will be in Chelsea's group. And with that, will be in City Group. So again, for UK audience and City fans and Chelsea fans, it would be good to discover different teams. But French Montana is bigging up massively with that. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to surprise you or disappoint you

or our listeners to let you know, Jules, that actually Gloria Estefan is kind of more in my wheelhouse. From my very first game, I knew that I wanted to be a goalkeeper. The buzz and the adrenaline that I got from it. The dream was to always represent my country. Mary Earps desperate to impress. I remember saying, I know I've got what it takes. And crucial save from Earps.

You have to be obsessed. Mary-Arts with a super save. You just look at some of the saves that she makes. Not everyone can do that. I really had no idea really how far I would go. England's around done at the dead! It felt like my world was ending. That was the moment.

I was in pieces on the kitchen floor. You have to hit rock bottom to understand what you really want. Mary would put herself in front of anything and feel like she could stop it. Welcome to the Inside Track with me, Rick Edwards. This is the podcast that takes you inside Formula One like never before. And I'm Matt Magendie, and thanks to my exclusive access, I'll be getting up close and personal with Red Bull Racing this season. This week, I sit down with one of the team's big bosses, Dr Helmut Marko. I also didn't think that Max would win four championships. He didn't have the success what we expected from him.

Experience Formula One like never before by tuning into the Inside Track wherever you get your podcasts. The Football Daily Podcast on BBC Sounds. Conor, we've been quite sort of Euro-centric there in our sort of initial discussions about the tournament. I mean you mentioned Auckland City as a really good example, Al Ackley as well I guess, of how they might look at this tournament slightly differently given the leagues they play and the football experiences that they have had. Ah yeah this is you know just being on this stage is the big prize for

a lot of these clubs and you know you can imagine the sort of credibility this gives them to their domestic markets to be up against the likes of Real Madrid and Inter Milan and even you know I think there's the teams that we feel we know well they've got an aura about them like River Plate and Botafogo and Flamenco you know teams that we all know them but actually could you name ten of their players you know I doubt if many people at home could do but yes in terms of of the Minos, there's teams like Esperanza Tunis, the Tunisian team, Alain from the Emirates, the Austrian club Salzburg have qualified for this, Mamalodi Sundowns from South Africa, Ulsan, the Korean team,

there's the Japanese team, Urawa Red Devils. But yeah, I did mention Auckland City and they are for me just a great... And by the way, they do have pedigree. They've won the Oceanic equivalent to the Champions League the last four years. So this is a proper successful team. We're used to doing well, but yet they're not full-time professionals. They've got guys who work in factories. They've got guys who are estate agents, teachers, students. And we know that obviously you're watching rugby today. We know from a rugby point of view, New Zealand are very used to being, you know, dominant in the world of sport, but not in football,

and that's why they'd love to make a strong impact here. Jules, any particular stories from the other confederations that have sort of, you know, taken your interest? Yeah, I like the South American teams. I want to see Boca and River. Boca have Edinson Cavani as their captain. I know he's towards the end of his career now, but I think the fans will be great for them there. For River Plate, you've got the new Wonder Kid of Argentine football in Franco Mastrantuono, who's just signed for Real Madrid for originally 45 million

euros, but that went up to 63 million euros. So lot of money for a 17 year old who is left footed and can play on the right wing if that reminds you of someone that we will also see that Connor will commentate on tonight. So for that it's great and same for the Brazilian clubs we mentioned Estevao earlier who will play in this and then go to Chelsea, Mastrontono will play in this for River and then go to Real Madrid but we will see by the way Xabi Alonso and Real Madrid for the first time, which will be cool. But you've got Palmeiras and you've got Fluminense with Thiago Silva, who will also face potentially some of his former European colleagues or teammates or opponents, which is great.

And I think I don't want to diss obviously the teams from Africa or from East Asia or from from North America But for me probably the the closest you could find to competing properly with the European teams will come from some From South America where by the way the leagues are ongoing so they're super fit They are they are just there not like the European teams and I think they could probably give the Europeans the most trouble Well, let's focus on Auckland City for one. Conor mentioned them, the only part-time side at this club World Cup. They qualified by winning the Oceania Champions League. Striker Angus Kilcolly has been telling the BBC's Manny Jasmine about the day jobs the

Auckland squad are taking time off from for the tournament. So I work for the Falthor brand, global brand, nice sort of manager sales team there. Got a few other boys who work in sales as well, real estate agents, teachers, couple of boys uni student. It's not easy but it's something that we've kind of always done so we don't really know any difference. So we're all used to sort of leaving the house in the morning and going doing your day job and then going training football at night. It's no different to going to school and then going to play football after school. That's how we've kind of always seen our priorities and sacrifice we've made is because we all obviously enjoy winning and in the New Zealand OZ, we do win a lot, but you also get bonuses

in terms of these tournaments that come to you. Now I think we put a lot of time and effort to continue to win in New Zealand and sacrifice winning New Zealand that when we do get to come to these tournaments, we can't really back the most of the opportunity. Did you have to take holiday time to be at the club World Cup? Yeah, I've got four weeks leave off work. There's actually a big national sales event this biggest week of the year for the company.

So I think the whole team's there selling as many products as they can. But yeah, unfortunately I'm not there. I don't want to patronise you, but Bayern Munich against Auckland is an actual match that's going to happen. How exciting is that? Yeah, it's an unbelievable feeling. I think when the draw got made, we were all ecstatic and it's a dream for us. These are teams that we're used to watching on the Champions League and watching the European finals. So, actually sit down on foot and on the same grass as them and compete and hopefully have a really

good game. I think it's a great opportunity for us to show our personalities and show that we do deserve to be here and we are good footballers. We all dreamed of, obviously when we were younger, to be professional footballers and we haven't got there fast on the boys have been in that sort of play before, but we've all worked out. We all train daily in a sense to make sure we're in our best condition for these tournaments and put our best foot forward. Now, you're not someone who just turned up to football and thought, okay, well, I'll just play this while I do other work because you took yourself off to Europe and not an obvious football country in Europe.

Tell me about that. Yeah, I think maybe a little bit naive. I think, yeah, as you've grown up, you obviously always dreamed of being a pro footballer and wanting to play in Europe and stuff like that. So when I was 19, I had a talk to an agent, went out to Lithuania and spent six months here. And I think I didn't make it in the football over there and I didn't get fully settled.

I ever really saw the green flag rather than the red flag. So it helped me grow as a person so much, being in a foreign country, being so far away from home, sort of going, this is only me here, I have to deal with this on my own. And I think that's helped me sort of grow into the person I am today. Connor McNamara over in Miami,

covering the tournament this summer, the FIFA Club World Cup. From the commentator's point of view as well, Connor, if you get a club like Auckland Sea, that is quite a lot of prep work. I mean, those are players you will not know anything about. No, the squads are huge as well. It goes back to the point that Pat Neville was making earlier on.

Of course, there are an awful lot of football games. If this wasn't on, they'd be off doing exhibition tournaments like Manchester United did in Kuala Lumpur and whatnot. But they're trying to find little ways to maybe take the stress off it and to be able to rotate things. And the squads are much bigger, but yes, selfishly, Ali, as you well know, as commentators, that just means an awful lot more prep. You know, you get 32 teams with 30 players.

You'd only do the maths to see that's a lot of players that we need to get our head around. But you know, I do like it. There's an excitement to this. Yes, it's not an international World Cup, but it's got that flavor vibe about it. It's something a little bit different. This isn't the same routine that we're always used to seeing all the time. I'll give you a selling point, if you're a Manchester United fan and you're maybe disappointed your team isn't involved in this, the team you've got to adopt now as the team to

support in this is Bocca. Because Bocca is like a Manchester United old boys club. Jules mentioned Cavalli's with them, but they've got Sergio Romero, the goalkeeper, Marcus Rojo, Ander Herrera, Spaniard, he plays for Bocca these days so there's a big Manchester United. I'm sure if they start going well that United fans will start cheering them on. Talking about living out your football dreams as well Jules and just looking at it from the other point of view, I mean Angus Kilcally we just listened to there, you know football isn't his main job. Auckland City played Bayern Munich

in this competition tomorrow. I mean, for him and the rest of that squad, pinch yourself, Starr. Absolutely, it's incredible. And to be fair, they've been to like International Cup before, and they usually qualify for the club world cup of the kind of the old version.

But this is even better for them because before they used to go and had to qualify to try to face the European teams and they never did. This time they are guaranteed to play three games, including, as we said, one against Bayern, one against Boca and one against Benfica, by the way. So I'm not sure they're gonna win. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're not gonna win anything.

I'm not sure they're gonna score even, but they will have a lot of fun and it would make them better. It's what we always say. It's a bit what Connor said about the FA Cup vibe earlier. You are the underdogs here. You've got nothing to lose though. The pressure is all on Bayern or all on Benfica or all on Boca when you're Auckland FC. Just go for it. If you lose, this is expected. You're gonna lose but you're gonna learn a lot and come back better next time. At the end of the four weeks, Jules, and like I said, this is still to play out. There's a lot of uncertainty about this. What do you think is a

success for the FIFA Club World Cup, this new format? And I mean that from FIFA's point of view view but I think also from the public's point of view what they are going to get out of it. Yeah it's interesting I think the fact that Australia to sell tickets to start with is not a good start. I think the beginning was always going to be slow and then I'm sure it will pick up especially from the knockout stages onwards when you should have all the top teams, all the top players there.

It will gain interest but like Conor said at the beginning, there's a lot going on right now in the US, the NBA Finals, the Golf US Open is there, the NHL Finals, the baseball season is halfway through pretty much. So there's a lot to compete with, but I think if they start not having too many empty seats, that's a good start. If we see good games with superstars shining, that's great. People watching around the world, that would be good. The only worry I have is what is this tournament going to do to those teams come October, for example? Because as we've been saying, this is a bit of a pre-season, but they won't have a pre-season. If you go all the way in this tournament, you're going to go back home and your league is going to start a week later.

So it's difficult and some of those teams might pay a little bit come September or October. And Conor, just finally we'll let you go. Conor's in Miami. He's commentating on the opening game this evening. One o'clock in the morning UK time into Miami against Al Aqli of Egypt. We've mentioned it a couple of times, but this is practice for the World Cup, isn't it? For everyone, not just players and squads, but broadcasters, organisers, you know, a dry run a year out from a massive tournament,

an expanded World Cup, 40-18 World Cup next summer. No, absolutely. Look, Ali, you've worked in the US an awful lot at golf events. You know the scale that they put on, the money they invest in it. I mean, so often a year out from a World Cup, we're reading stories about how the stadiums aren't ready and the infrastructure isn't there and they still have to build an airport.

They've none of these problems here. They've got the infrastructure. I was down at the Hard Rock Stadium yesterday, which doesn't normally have a grass pitch, but they're laying down the turf. It's incredible to watch how they roll out real grass on turf and then there's these massive machines. They look like the things that would drag an airplane along you know on the runway in the you know to bring it out to the runway or to bring it to the gate those kind of

little vehicles and that was actually stitching the turf together and you looked at you think hang on the games tomorrow how are you only stitching turf but you know they're so used to doing it on this scale they just come in and there'll be something else on in that stadium in a few days and then switch it back to a football stadium again they're used to hosting these massive events. There's yes the corporate machine which you know we can sneer at a little bit but it's able to deliver on things like this. There won't be an uncertainty as to whether the place is ready and I think you're asking the question there about what is the successful outcome of this. Yes you hope that maybe some of these American sports fans,

and let's face it, their national team is not doing well at the moment, so they won't be super excited about the World Cup next year. You just hope this draws them in. They see a bit of the razzmatazz, some of the big names produce some of the fireworks. And I do think one other little sort of side point on that, Ali, is when the players do get their break, and we're talking about them not getting much break, but so often you see someone, I'm just putting it off the top of my head, someone like Jude Bellingham, when he does go on holidays, he'll go to America, he'll put on an NBA jersey, he'll go to a get, you know, these kids, they're actually very much ingrained in US culture and US sport and this is a stage that they will want to

impress in. You know, a lot of these 20, early 30 year old European players will want to become household names in America and this is the opportunity to do it. Of course it's great if Messi gets his big moment but I think just as interesting, an analogy I made the other day Ali was, when I was a kid I remember watching Italia 90 and I never had heard of Toto Scalacci before. His name had never been mentioned and suddenly he's this enormous star and you'd like to think thatoto Scalacci before. You know, his name had never been mentioned. And suddenly he's this enormous star. And you'd like to think that there'll be some kids in America

who, there's some, you know, someone like, I don't know, Bart Koller, someone who they've not been aware of before, would score tons of goals this tournament. They'd go, wow, this is a superstar, and I'm really interested in this sport, and I want to get engaged in it. So there's definitely, look, it's a huge platform. Let's hope they use it well, and let's hope that it catches the imagination. Conor, get the espadrilles on, the sleeves rolled up on the suit

jacket and you've got to blow dry the hair. Enjoy it in Miami tonight. Thank you for talking to us and I know you're gonna watch every single minute because you do every football game. Exactly. So you enjoy that and we'll talk to you at some point during the tournament again. Thank you very much indeed. Conor McNamara and Julien Laurent. Five live sports, football daily. That is it for this episode. Also out now on your feed, you can catch how to win the Champions League,

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