It’s hard not to wonder what would have been said if this happened, say, at the 1978 World Cup, a tournament hijacked by the Argentinian dictatorship at the time.

Across 32 competing teams over the last month, FIFA have doled out a $1billion (£744m) prize pot.

The final did nothing to assuage those concerns, especially since reigning UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain were the favorites, but the Club World Cup's greatest success is that ther...