All roads lead to Saudi Arabia, at least in football. Manchester City, maiden UEFA Champions League winners after a1-0 victory over Internazionale, will travel to Jeddah in December as favourites to win the 2023 Club World Cup and cement Europe’s dominance of the club game in a tournament that marks the end of the competition’s current flawed format as well as a watershed moment in Saudi Arabia’s booming influence in the sport.
Brazil’s Corinthians were the last non-European club to claim the Club World Cup, but that narrow victory over Chelsea in 2012 – based on the tactical acumen and organisation of manager Tite and the enthusiasm of a huge travelling party in Yokohama – feels like a distant memory. That year, a single second-half goal by striker Paolo Guerrero proved to be the difference between the two clubs in a David-v-Goliath contest but, since then, the final of the Club World
