Ancelotti has already walked back his comments, and Madrid have released a statement in support of the tournament.
The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. The club world cup was a glorified friendly at the best of times, and was manageable when it was just a semi final and final. Now it's a whole mini tournament, just when players least need it. Even if everyone participates (they will), I would expect to see heavy rotation in the squads, and I doubt many players from the big European clubs will be busting a gut out there. It's pretty much a cakewalk for the European teams anyway, and they'll treat it for what it is....a promotional opportunity into emerging markets.
Everyone who says it's about money is right, but then all of football is just about money these days. We are at the point where we have to differentiate what type of money it's about, not whether it's about money at all. In this case it's about FIFA getting their cut of the lucrative UEFA pie. Because that's where all the money is, and that's what will bring all the money to this tournament. UEFA representative clubs. FIFA just wants to fill their pockets a little more, and get their grubby little hands on a piece of the biggest pie. Problem is, this pie already has enough grubby little hands in it.
The only thing that will ever cause clubs to take an actual stand against it (unlikely) or passively protest by giving limited minutes to star players (more likely) is a serious injury to a big player whilst at the tournament. FIFA will have their compensation schemes, but it won't be anything like enough to make up for the hassle of losing your top goalscoring to a long term injury in a meaningless tournament.
The only way this can make any sense for the big European teams, is to treat this like pre-season, because it's a month long tournament (June 15th to July 13th) held in the United States. For the big European teams that have qualified (Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter, Juventus, Chelsea, Atletico, Dortmund.......(and less so...) Porto, Benfica, and RB Salzburg, they face the value and prestige of squaring off against the likes of Al-Hilal, Urawa Red Diamonds, Ulsan HD, Al Ahly, Wydad Casablanca, Monterrey, Leon, Seattle Sounders, and Aukland City. Match ups, which on a competitive level, are a complete waste of time and they'll surely put out their reserve/youth filled teams.
There are Palmeiras, Fluminese, Flamengo and the '24 Copa Libertadores winners to be there too, and that's always relatively interesting and steeped in history to see the best of South American club football vs European, even if it's been largely one sided for a long time (European clubs have won 16 of the last 17 editions, with Corinthians 1-0 defeat of Chelsea in 2012 being the only time since 2006 that a non-european side has won it.) In fact since 2008, the accumulative score in finals has been 37 - 7 in favour of European sides, with half the non-european tally coming in one game (a crazy 5-3 between Madrid and Al-Hilal involving a lot of subs and Madrid being 5-1 up before they stopped trying). In 11 of those 16 finals, the "other" team has failed to even score.
The notion of the Club World Cup being competitively significant, or prestigious, pretty much died with the advent of enormous economic power in the European game, and the drain of the best talent from around the world into Europe. Especially from South America. So to expand an already dying/uncompetitive tournament to now include teams like Ulsan, Seattle, and Aukland is, on a competitive sporting level, a joke. And clubs will likely treat it as such. This is just a way for FIFA to monetize the lucrative pre-season tours that take place in the US for themselves.
