NEWARK — The final matchup for the FIFA Club World Cup is now set, and the tournament, culminating Sunday at MetLife Stadium with global powers Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, serves as a critical forerunner to next year’s FIFA men’s World Cup, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said.

Murphy, speaking Thursday at the Prudential Center at a soccer summit developed by GK Digital Ventures and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, said the tournament has provided key learnings for the World Cup, which he expects to be the largest single event in sports history. MetLife Stadium will also host the final for the World Cup, with a joint New York/New Jersey host committee prevailing last year in a spirited competition for the event.

As one FIFA event ends and preparation heightens for the next one, Murphy said he has been keenly interested in evaluating progress on safety and security, transportation, and fan experience.

“We actively sought out a major role in the Club World Cup this year, to make sure we could take whatever we’re doing around the track, so to speak,” Murphy said. “It was important to make sure all these things worked not only for this Cup, but that could test it out for next year. So we are incredibly enthusiastic for both years.”

The governor’s optimism exists even as the Club World Cup has been beset with a variety of operational issues, including near-empty stadiums in some instances, continued weak ticket demand as the tournament has continued, and complaints over field conditions. A sellout, however, is expected for Sunday’s final, and ticket resale prices begin at more than $300 per seat on multiple markets. 

New Jersey’s preparation for both FIFA events has included the development of an operations command center in Kearny, not far from MetLife Stadium, a heightened coordination with various levels of law enforcement and government. Additionally, state officials have been heavily involved in developing numerous fan festivals around New Jersey, including a primary one planned for Liberty State Park in Jersey City. 

Great Expectations

Murphy, meanwhile, predicted that the tournament final next year, to be played at MetLife Stadium, will be the “most-watched event in human history.” That’s likely to be true, given the global scale of the event and appeal of soccer, and the expanded, 48-team World Cup field that will begin next year. Additionally, major media measurement agencies such as Nielsen have developed better tools in recent months to more accurately track viewership. 

Though economic impact figures around sports have often been deemed as specious or overly inflated by government entities, Murphy said next year’s World Cup will generate “single-digit billions of dollars” for New Jersey as MetLife Stadium will host eight matches overall. 

“There is nowhere on the planet, in my humble opinion, that is more prepared for next year than we are,” Murphy said. 

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made attending high-profile sporting events a fixture of his second term, will be at Sunday’s final of the Club World Cup. Trump has a quickly growing relationship with FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, with that tie furthered by the organization’s announcement earlier this week that it is opening an office at Trump Tower in New York.

There is “a lot of bulljunk going on” in college football, according to Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who criticized the state of the sport at Big 12 media days as the revenue-sharing era has gotten off to a chaotic start.

“Quite frankly, we’re sick of it,” Sanders said Wednesday. “Nobody’s saying it. I’ll say it for everybody.”

What’s the solution? Coach Prime thinks it’s a hard, pro-style salary cap. 

“I wish there was a cap,” he said. “Like, the top-of-the-line player makes this, and if you’re not that type of guy, you know you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does. So the problem is, you got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him a half-million dollars and you can’t compete with that. And it don’t make sense.”

Division I athletic departments are allowed to share up to $20.5 million with their college athletes this coming academic year. Most Power 4 schools are expected to allocate 75% of that (roughly $15.38 million) to their football programs. But there are no rules against a school giving 100% of its revenue-sharing money to football players—and more importantly there is no cap on the NIL (name, image, and likeness) money players can receive, although the newly formed College Sports Commission is trying to curb pay-for-play deals that aren’t considered market value.

Sanders lamented schools and agents “doing stuff under the table,” despite the new changes to college sports. “I wish it was truly equality,” he said.

Gundy: Earn It First

Sanders isn’t alone in his desire for a true college football salary cap. 

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy wants a system akin to the NFL’s rookie wage scale, which limits contract amounts for first-year players. 

“We really need to get some guardrails to eliminate the things that are going on from the tampering standpoint, and players that are coming out of high school that are getting way too much money before they’ve ever made a play on game day,” Gundy said. “That’s how I feel personally about it. I’m O.K. with paying the players that are producing. And that’s the NFL model that I believe that some of what we pattern ourselves out of needs to be that.”

Last week, Texas Tech agreed to give 2026 five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo what his agent said is a three-year, $5.1 million revenue-sharing contract.

The Suns have had a massive shake-up over the last half-decade, from new ownership to four different head coaches and several new star players. But the one constant has been Devin Booker—and both sides once again showed their loyalty to each other.

Booker agreed to a two-year, $145 million extension Wednesday, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The deal is on top of the three years and $171.2 million remaining on his contract, giving him a total of roughly five years and $316.2 million. The contract runs until the 2029–30 season, when the guard will be 33 years old.

At $72.5 million per year, it’s the largest extension in terms of average annual value, surpassing the $71.25 million Shai Gilgeous-Alexander signed for last week, though that extension was for four years.

It’s been a busy offseason for the Suns, who hired Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott to become the franchise’s fourth head coach in the same number of years in early June.

Weeks later, Phoenix traded Kevin Durant to the Rockets and received a package highlighted by 23-year-old Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and the No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft that it used to select Khaman Maluach from Duke. 

With Booker, Green, and Bradley Beal, the Suns have nearly 91% of the league’s salary cap tied to three players who play the same position. However, there have been multiple reports that the Suns are working on a buyout with Beal, who has two years and $110 million remaining on his contract.

Phoenix has struggled to move on from Beal due to the no-trade clause in his contract, originally a five-year, $251 million supermax deal that he signed with the Wizards in 2022. The Suns are expected to waive-and-stretch Beal’s contract, which would mean the team would have nearly $20 million in dead money on their books for the next five years. However, a buyout will save Phoenix about $230 million, largely due to tax savings, according to cap expert Yossi Gozlan.