FIFA's Club World Cup has had several issues before they even kick off, including slow ticket sales and player protests.
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0:00
You've heard of the Club World Cup, right? A soccer tournament with the top professional teams in the world starting Saturday
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Judging by ticket sales, not enough people have, and that is disappointing for FIFA, soccer's worldwide governing body
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The 32-team event could be considered a warm-up for next summer's World Cup, but it's been plagued by problems
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Initially, ticket prices were too high for many fans. In the last week, a dynamic pricing model has brought prices down significantly as demand continues to wane
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In Seattle, fans are being offered free tickets. For Saturday's match featuring Lionel Messi's Inter Miami, most seats on Ticketmaster were around $75 at last check, down from nearly $400 two weeks ago
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Poor ticket sales aren't the only issue. A $1 billion prize pool FIFA put up for the tournament drew a lot of attention
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So did the t-shirts the Seattle Sounders wore during warm-ups before their June 1st MLS game with Minnesota
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Stenciled on the front with Mr. Monopoly, the shirt reads, Club World Cash Grab. On the back, Fair Share Now
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At issue is the portion of the prize money allocated to the three MLS teams in the tournament
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Inter-Miami, Seattle Sounders, and LAFC. They've already earned almost $10 million each just for qualifying
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Every win a team has in the tournament is worth an additional $2 million
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and every draw worth an additional $1 million. The players are upset their share is capped at $1 million total for each roster
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The rest of the money goes to team owners In essence a 10 to 1 ratio before the tournament even begins Sounders captain Stefan Fry and forward Christian Roldan say the shirts were necessary
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You know, our message on the weekend was to try to get a point across that, hey, we want to sit down and talk
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I think we made that point and I think it was received
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I think the league knows that this is this money, this amount of money that's being granted for playing in this tournament
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needs to be distributed in a fair way. The league responded a week later with a proposal
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that gives 20% of the prize money earned for a win or a draw
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but has said nothing since. The players say that's still too low
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and they're now caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, excited to have the opportunity to compete with the best teams in the world
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but dealing with the distraction of what they perceive as unfair pay
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You practice good faith. negotiation in good faith. And I'm not sure if I'm seeing that from the MLS side, right
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We came up with an offer back to them after they stalled for a week
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and we gave them an offer within 24 hours, and we haven't heard back
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There are also complaints from other top players around the world about FIFA crowding the soccer calendar with more matches
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The expansion of the Club World Cup from seven teams to 32 this year
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comes during what players say is their much-needed break between the regular season schedules of several European leagues
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Will MLS teams refuse to take the field if they don't receive more money? It is an option, but Sounders head coach Brian Smetzer said Thursday it's unlikely
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His players feel they owe it to their fans to compete. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis
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