Having the opportunity to photograph the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 was an amazing experience. I had the chance to cover the top teams and players in the world. Something I don’t get to do every day. Mbappe, Messi, Harry Kane, Haaland and others not to mention I got the chance to cover my favorite club, Real Madrid. You really can’t beat that. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and the soccer gods saw fit that I be there to witness it.
This Club World Cup had teams such as Boca Juniors, Inter Miami, Real Madrid, Juventus, PSG, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and others in it. And it wasn’t like they sent their B teams over for a friendly exhibition, they brought all the big names with them. Aside from Messi, where else would I be able to photograph Erling Haaland and Mbappe in the same week if I wasn’t in Europe? I was beyond excited to say the least. While I would get the chance to photograph a lot of these clubs and players here in Miami, I did make several trips to Orlando to cover other matches as well.
The Application Process
The application process for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 was cumbersome to say the least. In order to just to apply to cover the event you had to apply to gain access to FIFA’s media hub. Once you got access to that then you were able to apply to cover the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. And once you got approved for that, then you could apply for the matches you wanted to cover. Yes, it was that burdensome.
Two days before a match you were approved to cover, you had to check in and apply to get things like a parking pass or the ability to cover team arrivals. Once you checked in you were assigned a group like A, B or C, which would let you know when you could pick your seat assignment.
When it was time to pick your seat, you had to wait in queue until your number was ready and then you had 45 seconds to pick your seat. There were a few times that the app glitched or froze and I had to go to the back of the queue before I could try to pick my seat assignment.
Opening Match Headaches
Any first match or opening day is going to have some headaches, but holy hell did we, as media, have one of those days. It was apparently clear that there was no communication from FIFA to the security of Hard Rock Stadium. We were given parking passes and when we went to the gate that we were told to go to, we were told that we were at the wrong gate. So instead of parking next to the media entrance of the stadium we had to park all the way in the back of the stadium.
Here’s where it gets fun.
Normally, for football games, we could park and walk outside the stadium to get to the media entrance. Well, FIFA built these giant, enclosed gates where no one could get in until it was time to enter. Asking security how to get in as media and the answer was no one knew. After asking like 6 different people we were told we had to exit the stadium compound and walk on the sidewalk to the another entrance on the other side of the stadium. Nothing like having photographers with $30, $40 or even $50k worth of gear just out to be robbed easily.
So there is a huge group of us now going from entrance to entrance trying to get in and being told each time we’re in the wrong spot even though the previous gate workers told us to go this way. We eventually find the right gate but security wouldn’t let us through because we were walking and not in our cars. I kept walking even as the lady shouted numerous times to stop, but at this point I was over it.
After all of this. a lot of us were thirsty and hungry because lugging all our gear around the outside of the stadium was draining. Then we find out there is no complimentary food, snacks or water for us. We had to buy food like we were average fans. Needless to say, we weren’t pleased. Luckily for me I knew some of the on-field security supervisors who gave me bottles of water.
And back to the communication portion, we were told that there would be an opening ceremony prior to the match. What they didn’t tell us was that it have people performing songs and they were in the distance we could barely make out any of them. We weren’t given any names of the artists etc. so when it came time to submit photos to the wire, none of those were uploaded because we have no idea who anyone was.
The Fans
The best part of the Club World Cup were the fans. The passion, the chants; it was amazing. From the first match all the way until the last one I covered, the fans were on their feet singing their clubs songs and chants the entire match.
I know there were cities were the attendance numbers were not optimal, but not here in Miami. Other than one match where a team from South Africa played, every match was over 60,000 fans. Even at those 3pm games where the sun was out and blazing, fans showed up. You could hear them even before you walked onto the pitch.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches coming to Miami, this Club World Cup was a great lesson in what to expect. Hopefully I get the chance to cover matches for that as well.
To see more photos from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 check out my soccer portfolio as well as visit my Instagram page
