The United States, Canada, and Mexico will jointly host the FIFA Men's World Cup next year, which, given the current state of international relations within North America, is hilarious and disconcerting. Ahead of that tournament, the US is solely hosting the FIFA Club World Cup, which features elite club teams from around the world (e.g. Manchester City and Real Madrid) rather than national teams.
The club tournament is launching this Saturday and continuing through Sunday, July 13, when the final will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Coldplay's Chris Martin has curated the halftime show for the big game, which will be produced by the social justice nonprofit Global Citizen. J Balvin, Doja Cat, and Tems will all perform, and all three are listed as headliners.
The show will support the newly announced FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which intends to raise $100 million to improve access to quality education. One dollar from every ticket sold during the tournament will be donated to this fund. It's not entirely clear how the halftime show will support the fund, but presumably there will be calls to donate onscreen during the broadcast — which, by the way, will be streaming at DAZN.com.
I was going to complain about how the Columbus Crew deserves to be in this tournament, but in their depleted current state, it would not go well for them anyway.
