There’s a fresh secret behind football’s most prized silverware. FIFA has let the cat out of the bag regarding the Club World Cup trophy, and it’s not what fans or even players might expect. The real story behind the trek of the trophy has transformed how sports champions celebrate and what they can actually put in their trophy room.
The trophy’s secret journey: Why the actual Club World Cup trophy is temporary
Football fans have been seeing the winning team holding the gleaming Club World Cup trophy up high in a shower of confetti for years. Few know that this is fleeting in more than one sense. FIFA’s “secret” – and Marca has let the cat out of the bag on it – is that the actual trophy is only awarded to the winners as part of the after-game celebratory game. On shutdown, FIFA receives the actual trophy, and the club keeps a replica.
Marca describes, “the winning side only gets to keep the debut trophy to celebrate with on the last.” The remainder of the year, it is in the care of FIFA, stored and preserved.
This is how FIFA tradition maintains the legacy of the trophy
By limiting the availability of the original, FIFA guarantees that the mystique and integrity of the trophy are preserved. The replica the club holds is extremely hard to tell apart in looks, but it’s not the same piece of history that’s been owned by world champions everywhere. In that way, the history of the trophy is preserved, and another layer of exclusivity is bestowed upon the victory.
The replica’s history: What the winners actually win
Goal.com details the nuances of the design of the Club World Cup trophy and how replicas are made. The replica is produced to the same technical specifications as the real one, but secretly engraved and officially classified as a replica. It means the club gets to display it in their trophy case, but the actual one is not available.
The article reports: “Clubs are awarded with a copy trophy to retain, the original being retained by FIFA.”
It is a bit different from some of the other big competitions, such as the FIFA World Cup, where the business organizing it gets to retain the actual trophy. The copy is a symbol of victory that the supporters and team players value, but since the actual one only remains in their hands for a short time, the enjoyment is a bit bittersweet.
To hold briefly in one’s hand the original trophy is to make all the sweeter for memory. The prize itself is theirs for the duration of an instant, and the richer for it. And a reminder that the delight of the victory is transient and everlasting—one in the fleeting moment of transience, and then in possession of the next generation of heroes.
What’s next: The future of the Club World Cup trophy and football’s greatest prize
The company’s operation involves making every victory under the company special and unique in trophy lore. To the sportsman himself, the replica is everywhere, in his head, it is present, reminding him of the trophy, but it is the pride of having been given the original on the highest podium in sports.
The following you glance over and see a line of players standing up straight with the Club World Cup trophy held high in victory, bear this in mind: the trophy itself is theirs only briefly before it will lie safely ensconced in the safe at the FIFA headquarters. The prize itself is theirs for the duration of an instant, and the richer for it.
