Sport

Manchester City could win the biggest prize money in football history this summer

It's in a bid to have teams to take the tournament for serious. We have a feeling it's going to work...

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 6th March 2025

Treble winners and four-time consecutive Premier League champions, Man City, could collect arguably their easiest payday yet this summer by playing just seven matches, as it has been confirmed that the total prize money pot for the 2025 Club World Cup is a whopping $1 billion.

We know you can’t hear us through the screen but just know there was an audible gulp.

That’s right, the winner of this year’s FIFA Club World Cup competition will not only get to don the same golden badge as Manchester City did last season but also be able to claim the biggest chunk of an equivalent £775m in British sterling should they emerge victorious.

Not only does this now make the upcoming edition of the international club tournament the most lucrative one in world football but it will also be the biggest single pot of prize money ever won in the sport’s history.

Set to take place in the US this summer from Saturday, 14 June to Sunday, 13 July, the 2025 Club World Cup will be a revamped version of the competition that had already been won once by City, once by Manchester United, and once by Liverpool.

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It only began back in 2000, with Brazilian side Corinthians winning the inaugural edition and giants such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona going on to lift the trophy multiple times – Los Blancos boasting the most with five wins.

Cut to the present day and following major sponsorship and broadcasting deals being struck in recent months, with DAZN securing exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights as well as 24 games being televised by TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport).

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For a long time, the significance of the Club World Cup has been put to one side and merely dismissed a series of glorified pre-season friendlies by teams and their supporters alike.

However, it’s fair to say that offering figures in the region of £100m or maybe even upwards of that for just four weeks of work, as Kaveh Solhekol puts it, will no doubt see plenty of teams change their tune. In theory, they don’t even need to win them all to get their hands on it either.

To put these figures into context, the total prize money for the 2022 Qatar World Cup was $440 million (approx. £341.8m); Argentina got almost £33m of that and the winner of this current UEFA Champions League campaign will earn around £21.1m on top of the roughly £15.7m they get for qualifying.

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So yeah, it’s very big money…

Only Chelsea and Man City are among those representing the UK in the tournament this summer, and although the Blues haven’t been at their very brilliant best this season, you would bank on beating a lot of the big hitters contending for the Club World Cup title this year.

Major European names include record-winners Madrid as well as their Athletico; Bayern and Borussia Dortmund; PSG, Inter, Juventus and Benfica, not to mention the likes of Messi‘s Inter Miami – who have the home nation advantage – Palmeiras, River Plate, Boca Juniors and more from outside the continent.

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Although FIFA is yet to confirm exactly how much the winner of this £1 billion competition will take home, in the instance of the now record-breaking 2025 Club World Cup, it seems that it really is the taking part that counts.

Even if the estimate of £77.5m for the champion is vaguely accurate, that’s game-changing money for any team, especially Man City given the shadow of FFP, PSR and the now 130 alleged charges still looming over them.

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Investigations and slightly nauseating levels of money on the line aside, as is often the case with football these days, City continue to become an increasingly massive and truly global club.

So much so that the Etihad Campus won’t soon just be a stadium and series of sports facilities but a year-round ‘entertainment destination’.

Manchester City reveal name, official partner and more images of huge new Etihad Stadium hotel
Taking the lion’s share of that $1 billion Club World Cup prize fund could go towards paying off a good chunk of ‘The Medlock’.

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Featured Images — The Manc Group

Sport

A release date for the Freddie Flintoff documentary has been confirmed

Danny Jones Danny Jones Freddie Flintoff Disney+ documentary film

The release date for the upcoming Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff documentary has been revealed, and it’s coming a lot sooner than many expected.

Simply entitled Flintoff, the documentary has been highly anticipated among UK audiences, especially given events in recent years.

Landing on Disney+ only, the film will follow his glittering cricket career as well as his return to the sport and the public after a life-altering car crash whilst filming Top Gear in 2022.

Much to our surprise, it’s all ready to go and is dropping next month.

The Disney+ doc will run for approximately 90 minutes and follow on from his recent BBC series, Freddie Flintoff‘s Field of Dreams, which saw him start to open up about the difficult period and recovery publicly for the first time.

An eye-opening and candid show in its own right alongside the inspiring story of a teen cricket team being coached by the Lancashire and England legend, he won even more hearts when the second season launched last August.

It’s no surprise that there is a third instalment on its way next year.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time he’s been the subject of his own documentary, as the 47-year-old also released a BBC One called Freddie Flintoff: Living with Bulimia, charting his personal struggles with the eating disorder and mental health even prior to the trauma of his crash.

You can see a snippet of the one-off show down below.

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The Preston-born all-rounder has confessed he still suffers from PTSD following the incident, detailing struggles with anxiety, nightmares and flashbacks of the crash, insisting that it “changed my life forever.”

All that being said, we’re glad to see that he’s continued to overcome numerous obstacles and remains an extremely funny and personable figure, as well as an eternal icon of British sport that so many admire.

As for Disney’s Flintoff film, the documentary will be available exclusively on the streaming platform in the UK and Ireland from Friday, April 25.

We will most certainly be watching.

Freddie Flintoff opens up on ‘anxiety and nightmares’ after Top Gear crash

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Featured Images — Disney+/Gareth Williams (via Flickr)

Sport

The first-ever Gladiators Live Tour is coming to Manchester

Danny Jones Danny Jones The Gladiators Live Tour Manchester AO Arena tickets

Gladiators, ready! Mancs, ready? We certainly hope so because the first-ever ‘Gladiators Live Tour’ is setting across the UK and is coming to Manchester.

When we first heard that the beloved British version of the hit TV show (which first ran here in the UK for eight seasons between 1992 and 2000) was coming back, we were buzzing, and now we’ve heard it’s coming to us live and in person, we’re about ready to fight you with big pugil sticks over a seat.

Since returning in 2024 and the second series beginning at the start of this year on BBC One and Player, with a third season set for January 2026, Gladiators has recaptured imaginations across the country, bringing in both new viewers and those who remember the original back to the screen.

We’ve always wondered what it would be like to take part – not that we’d stand a chance, mind you – but we suppose seeing the Gladiators in action live right here in Manchester is the next best thing.

Set to deliver an action-packed experience, the global debut of the Gladiators Live Tour is ready to drop a superhero landing in the heart of Manchester city centre at none other than the legendary AO Arena.

Promising a thrilling two-hour watch featuring fan-favourite events and, of course, an ultimate Eliminator, the live Gladiators experience has all the charm of the much-loved TV show with the added excitement of different twists each night.

There are a pair of dates in Manchester, as well as two events a pieces available in Liverpool, London and Birmingham, with the AO matinee shows spread across a weekend this autumn.

It goes without saying that the fast-paced and fun-for-all-ages spectacle will see some serious athleticism and stunts, as well as purpose-built sets and state-of-the-art lighting in order to bring the gladiatorial battleground truly to life in front of your very eyes.

We may have just missed out on the latest recruitment drive, but we can guarantee you’ll find us out there in the audience.

Gladiators The Live Tour comes to Manchester on 22 and 23 November 2025, and you have two chances to access pre-sale: first through the AO Arena itself from 10am on Tuesday, 15 April and then again the following day if you’re a Three Mobile member.

As for general admission, tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 17 April and trust us, these things will go faster than a round of ‘Unleashed’.

You can get ready to grab yours HERE.

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For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Supplied

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