Advertisement

Sundowns to reassemble at weekend for US trip

football03 June 2025 16:05| © Mzansi Football
Share

Mamelodi Sundowns have gone off on a few days' rest after the disappointment of failure to win the African Champions League in Egypt on Sunday but will re-assemble at the weekend before heading off to the United States to compete at the Club World Cup.

The South African champions will be one of the four African representatives at the new-look 32-team tournament, which world football’s governing body Fifa hope will eventually match the World Cups for national teams in terms of prestige, popularity and financial pull.

The concept of international club competition is nothing new but never previously on this scale.

Fifa have also looked to make it an attractive proposition for clubs by allocating $525m in guaranteed fees for teams taking part, ranging from $38.19m to the top-ranked European teams like Manchester City and Real Madrid to $3.58m for the Oceania representative Auckland City from New Zealand.

The four African clubs will each earn $9-million for their three group matches with more money if they win a game and/or advance past the group stage.

Intercontinental club competition began in 1960 when the champions of Europe took on their South American counterpart in an annual competition played over home and away legs, with Real Madrid winning the first against Uruguay’s Peñarol 5-1 in the second leg in Spain after a 0-0 draw in the first in Montevideo.

For decades, the Intercontinetal Cup between Europe and South America determined the de facto global champion at a time when no official worldwide club competition existed.

Asia and Africa attempted their own play-off challenge between 1986 and 1998, but the Afro-Asian Club Cup never stirred the imagination.

Orlando Pirates lost 5-0 to Asian champions Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma in South Korea when they contested the cup after winning the African title in 1995.

Fifa started a Club World Championship in 2000 which included champions from all continents, and from 2005 was replaced by the Club World Cup, but the tournament remained nothing more a one-week blip on the calendar each year.

The format allowed the Uefa Champions League winner and Copa Libertadores victor to only enter at the semifinal stage and was only on a single match knockout basis.

Mamelodi Sundowns competed in the 2016 edition, the only South African side to have done so, but lost 2-0 to Kashima Antlers from hosts Japan in their first game and then 4-1 to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors of Korea in the fifth and sixth place playoff game.

In both matches they were largely out-played but now get a chance to redeem themselves over three group games in the United States, starting on 17 June.

Advertisement