Maybe we should’ve seen this coming when they started discussing the blindingly white teeth of “the Trivago guy”.
A few weeks ago, when a new “actor” appeared in Trivago adverts broadcast across America, there was a flurry of social media debate about his teeth.
In a post on X, now viewed more than 7m times, Jonah Goldberg, a political commentator with more than 370,000 followers, posted a screenshot of the man in the advert with disconcertingly bright molars and: “Is anyone else troubled by the Trivago guy? Especially his teeth?”
In the hundreds of comments beneath it was pointed out the Trivago guy is Jurgen Klopp.
But Goldberg wasn’t the only one. In a subreddit titled, “Trivago Guy – Can’t Put My Finger On It”, there was fervent discussion about this random bloke’s teeth before someone pointed out: “He has a wiki page, and despite the forum hate, he’s really quite a great guy.”
And so to Chelsea vs Los Angeles FC, where only 22,137 turned up to watch the Premier League giants start their campaign to lift the illustrious Club World Cup trophy in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, that can hold 71,000.
In fact, it isn’t even the lowest attendance of the tournament (so far).
Fifa couldn’t fill the 26,000-seater TQL Stadium in Ohio for Bayern Munich vs Auckland City at the weekend.
Roughly 21,000 showed up to watch Bayern hit 10 past their opponents. Since the actual World Cup began, 95 years ago, there has never been a 10-0.
In hindsight – and, maybe, in foresight for most people – perhaps people don’t want to pay hundreds of pounds for a ticket to watch Harry Kane and Co have shooting practice against a goalkeeper who works as a forklift truck driver back home.
Few were tempted at £38 on the day of the game to see a team that included a barber, a schoolteacher and some estate agents take on multi-million-pound stars.
The disparity in levels that is endearing in the FA Cup becomes somewhat grotesque when you pit a team sixth in Opta’s global rankings against one that is 5,074th.
Even the big opening fixture – Inter Miami against Al Ahly – that included Lionel Messi, one of the strongest crowd magnets in sport, wasn’t a sellout.
Fifa almost got there, clawing 60,927 fans into the 64,767-capacity Hard Rock Stadium. But, with sales lagging, that included offering a ticket to students for less than £15 – which came with four free tickets.
There have been some complaints that it’s only the cranky English media complaining about the Club World Cup – that fans of other countries love it.
Boca Juniors vs Benfica, kicking off in Miami at a better local time, had a good atmosphere – more than 55,000 of the Hard Rock Stadium seats were filled. Paris Saint-Germain vs Atletico Madrid drew an impressive 80,619 fans, although still short of the Rose Bowl’s roughly 90,000 capacity.
Half-empty stadiums and around 200,000 empty seats in eight games suggests that it’s not only the English who are apathetic.
To see if the tournament has, so far, been a global viewing success, I contacted Dazn to ask for viewing figures for the opening games.
In case you are unaware: after major broadcasters turned down the chance to buy rights for the Club World Cup, the online platform miraculously stumped up $1bn (more than £780m at the time of the deal being agreed in December) for global streaming rights for the whole tournament.
Even more miraculously, Saudi Arabia’s Surj Sports Investment then paid $1bn for an unknown stake in Dazn.
Dazn were unable to comment publicly, and said they rarely ever publicise viewing figures. Fifa and Dazn, a source said, wanted to play the Chelsea game at a time Chelsea fans were able to watch it – which meant a three o’clock local kick-off, when many people were still at work.
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Fifa’s marketing has focused on influencers such as IShowSpeed, who most people over 30 will probably never have heard of (he seems to run around a lot screaming at famous people) and very much appeals to the online generations who will happily sign up to a free platform to watch free football (DAZN claim they have had millions of free sign-ups since the tournament started), but don’t have hundreds of pounds to attend in person.
Nor, probably, any money to pay for a subscription to keep watching when it isn’t free.
The success of that, I guess, will be measured in viewing figures. Which we cannot see. Should any of this be a concern for the World Cup in a year’s time?
Despite the “Trivago guy” incident, there is plenty of evidence of a growing appetite for soccer in the States.
The Mercedes-Benz Stadium is home of Atlanta United, a club that has drawn average MLS attendances of more than 44,000 so far this season, while more than 70,000 fans turned up for Chelsea vs Newcastle United for a Premier League Summer Series friendly there two years ago.
The empty seats seem more a damning assessment of the Club World Cup – a tournament that nobody wanted or needed, except Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
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