7 reasons the International Champions Cup should be thrown down a well and left there

Good for VC’s returns on investment, bad for the sport

Behind the ICC lies a combination of venture capitalists and event promoters. Relevent Sports, the outfit that puts on these summer exhibition games, is a division of the venture capital firm RSE, an organization that prides itself on partnering with “curious entrepreneurs” and also  “operates sports, media and entertainment properties that deliver world-class experiences.” These are the corporate drones whose coffers you fill every time you shell north of $100 for an exhibition game to see the likes of Juventus and PSG labor through their summer training.

There is nothing inherently wrong with promoting the world’s game to new audiences. However, sacrificing the goodwill of the game, destroying any claim to the narrative that soccer is the “people’s game” can have deep lasting consequences.

Once soccer becomes a classist sport, inaccessible to the masses, it will lose whatever edge in worldwide mass popularity it may have. The ICC organizers are playing a dangerous game. Seeking out profits at the expense of reducing a much-needed and already short offseason is a dangerous ploy. Taking the sport away from the masses and giving putting it on the “ultra-premium” experience market could turn out to have deep consequences for the future of the game.

Given its current format and its disconnect from the grassroots origins of the sport, it is time to throw this ICC down the well.