Bayern Munich vs Auckland City live updates: Club World Cup 2025 predictions, team news, latest score

On the big screen at the Hard Rock Stadium, the concentric circles of the Club World Cup spun like the rings of a new planet. FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the master of this universe, called it a “big bang moment in the history of football,” and it was finally here. Would his new competition explode into life or flame out?

Hours before kick-off, Infantino was already in the ground observing the final preparations for the inaugural game between Al Ahly and Inter Miami. He had ended his cringey call with ’90s pop stars Robbie Williams and Laura Pausini on the balcony of his South Beach hotel, in which ‘Desire’ was announced as the new official FIFA song. On Williams’ T-shirt was the slogan ‘hopeium’. It sounded like a hallucinogen capable of blocking out the negativity caused by reports of thousands of unsold tickets.

If this really was “a new era for soccer”, as Infantino claimed, it seemed, at least initially, that not many people wanted to be there for it — put off by earlier aggressive ticket pricing and, perhaps, the signalled presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Hard Rock. Some club executives of participating teams were disappointed by the lack of promotional material in cities and airports. Locals seemed confused by the concept. Isn’t the World Cup next summer? How is this different?

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