PHILADELPHIA — You’ve heard plenty by now about the fact that Philadelphia will host the men’s World Cup next summer, bringing the world’s most famous sporting event here for the first time.

You also might have heard that this summer, the city will host part of the Club World Cup: eight games in 18 days at Lincoln Financial Field, from Sunday through July 4. Eight teams will come to town from across three continents, and some of soccer’s biggest stars will play here.

But what exactly is the Club World Cup?

The answer seems easy enough at first: 32 club teams from around the world, broken into groups of four like at a traditional World Cup, with 16 going to the knockout rounds. They play for a trophy, a huge cash prize and the right to be called world champion.

In fact, it’s not that simple. There’s a lot more to it, and not all of it is good. That story needs telling before the games here kick off.

FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, first ran a Club World Cup in 2000. Again, the idea seemed easy enough: Club teams play in continental championships, like the UEFA Champions League and Concacaf Champions Cup, but rarely play across continents to see who’s really the best.

The tournament truly got going in 2005 and has been contested almost every year since then. Until now, it usually has had one team from each of the six soccer continents — Europe, South America, North/Central America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania — plus one from the host country.

That was as far as FIFA ever got into the club game. The events it ran were for national teams, and it mostly left the club game alone.

How things changed

When FIFA president Gianni Infantino took office in 2016, he had come from UEFA, European soccer’s governing body. He knew firsthand how the Champions League had grown to become the biggest — and most profitable — stage in the club landscape.

Infantino wanted FIFA to have that title. And it was no coincidence that he wanted FIFA to get some of that money for itself. So he set out to grow the Club World Cup to the same size as its national team spectacles.

There was a lot of resistance across the sport. UEFA objected to having its turf stepped on, and so did some clubs. Players and their unions complained about having yet another tournament added to already-crowded schedules, with World Cups and continental championships every other summer. Where would this fit in, and how would anyone ever get an actual break from playing?

Infantino answered those complaints in the way FIFA knows best: with a promise of a giant pile of cash. He was convinced he could drum up a $1 billion prize pot, and although he didn’t have the money in the bank yet, he insisted he’d find it.

When you’re the FIFA president, you usually get what you want, and he did. After the pandemic halted plans to launch a bigger Club World Cup in China in 2021, it became real in December 2022. In June 2023, FIFA gave the U.S. hosting rights as a warmup for the 2026 World Cup.

In December, the money started to arrive thanks to a broadcast deal with DAZN, a worldwide streaming platform. It isn’t well-known in the United States, but it’s a major soccer broadcaster in Europe, Asia and Canada. DAZN then agreed to sublicensing deals for TNT and Univision to take some games to wider audiences.

Since then, we’ve seen where the money is really coming from. In February, a sub-entity of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought a stake in DAZN. Earlier this month, the PIF became a Club World Cup sponsor.

No one in the know around the soccer world was surprised by either move. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has become one of the sport’s biggest power players, which included landing hosting rights for the 2034 men’s World Cup.

Ticket prices drop

The other way FIFA wanted to make money was through ticket sales. It hired Ticketmaster, with its widely disliked dynamic pricing system, instead of setting its own prices, as it does for traditional World Cups. Costs immediately skyrocketed — but then started falling amid flagging sales.

Then came fans’ fears over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at games. The noise over that seemed to worry FIFA: The Athletic reported that FIFA asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection to take down social media posts saying officers would be present.

It’s not clear whether that’s the reason the posts came down, but just the perception of a problem is enough.

Put all of this together, and FIFA faces the real risk of TV cameras panning across thousands of empty seats at an event it wants to be a big deal. That won’t happen at every game, but it could Saturday at the opener between Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and Egypt’s Al Ahly at the Miami Dolphins’ stadium.

These facts paint a pretty bleak picture, but the tournament could end up looking nicer, for a few reasons.

The first, and biggest, is that soccer still has a cultural impact like nothing else in the world. Fans will show up to watch teams and players they usually only get to see on TV, and Philadelphia’s eight games will include some of the best: Brazil’s Flamengo, England’s Chelsea and Manchester City, Italy’s Juventus (with U.S. national teamers Weston McKennie and Tim Weah) and Spain’s Real Madrid — the biggest and most star-studded team in the world.

More could come in the knockout rounds: France’s Paris Saint-Germain or Spain’s Atlético Madrid in the round of 16, and maybe Germany’s Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals on July 4.

It’s also interesting when teams from different continents play each other. Chelsea-Flamengo on June 20 at the Linc will have some real spice. So will Bayern against Argentina’s Boca Juniors that same day, Brazil’s Fluminense against Germany’s Borussia Dortmund (with American Gio Reyna) on June 17 and Italy’s Inter Milan against Argentina’s River Plate on June 25.

Will an underdog break through? MLS will hope so, although all three of its teams face stacked groups: Miami, the Seattle Sounders (who get all their group games at home), and Los Angeles FC. Mexico’s Monterrey and Pachuca also will take their best shots, and Monterrey gets to play all of its group games at the Rose Bowl.

A measuring stick for success

The last big question to ask is this: How seriously will the European giants take it? Some will, but some might not — especially those that capped long seasons with deep Champions League runs. Another seven-game load in a hot American summer is the last thing they need.

The sense around the sport is that Atlético and Bayern will go for it, wanting to win a title and make a mark on the world and American stages. Chelsea probably will, too, because it prizes American fans and has a young squad.

“I think when you play with passion and with your heart, you don’t really think too much about, ‘Oh, I’m tired,’ or ‘Are we just doing it because it’s a lot of money for the club?’ ” Blues midfielder Roméo Lavia said. “We’re just all competitors, so we want to go and win and make history. Because it’s not something that happens all the time.”

PSG also is young and outrageously talented. But its players might be worn out from winning the Champions League and then playing two early-June games with France’s national team. Inter, the team PSG beat in the Champions League final, has an older squad — and group opponents that could pull an upset.

That leaves the two biggest names of all, Real Madrid and Manchester City. It so happens that for once, they didn’t win anything this past season. Winning the Club World Cup would change their narratives in an instant.

If they go all-in, the rest of the field will have to, and that will elevate the spectacle. So far, it seems they will.

“If you play these kind of competitions, you want to get as far as possible, play as good as possible, so, obviously, win,” Manchester City midfielder İlkay Gündoğan said. “I see it as quite meaningful.”

He also said that “even if we would have won at least a couple of trophies, you know, or maybe won even all the trophies, I feel like it’s still the same motivation.”

FIFA will be thrilled to hear that, and fans will be, too.

This tournament already was going to be Philadelphia’s dress rehearsal for next summer and its biggest moment on a soccer stage since the 2003 women’s World Cup. If the games here actually are good, and if people show up to watch them, the city will look even better.

Five group games worth watching

— Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atlético Madrid: 3 p.m. Sunday in Pasadena, Calif. (TNT, Univision, DAZN)

— Monterrey vs. Inter Milan: 9 p.m. Tuesday in Pasadena (DAZN)

— Flamengo vs. Chelsea: 2 p.m. June 20 at Lincoln Financial Field (TNT, DAZN)

— Bayern Munich vs Boca Juniors: 9 p.m. June 20 in Miami Gardens, Fla. (TBS, DAZN)

— Inter Milan vs. River Plate: 9 p.m.June 25 in Seattle (TNT, UniMás, DAZN)

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