Plans to expand the Club World Cup are underway as announced by FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Friday
A 32-team Men’s Club World Cup has been announced to be launched in 2025 by FIFA President Gianni Infantino. This comes just four years after a failed attempt to launch the event in China, according to DailyMail.
In a press conference in Doha, ahead of Argentina vs France final, Gianni Infantino termed the 2022 Qatar World Cup as ‘the best World Cup ever’. Speaking at the conference FIFA President said, “It will be a Club World Cup of 32 teams, every four years, and the first edition will be summer of 2025. They will be the best teams in the world invited to participate.”
The FIFA Club World Cup takes place every year in December but was postponed to February next year in Morocco.
The new plan is expected to raise FIFA’s revenues from $7.5 billion in the current four-year cycle (2018-2022) to $11 billion (£9bn) in the next four years (2022-2026).
However, Europe’s top clubs have yet to see any formal proposals for the 32-team Club World Cup which FIFA intend to launch in 2025 but were strongly against previous versions citing players’ welfare due to busy round-year schedules.
Last year Premier League chief executive Richard Masters noted his opposition to radical changes in the Football calendar, “The Premier League is committed to preventing any radical changes to the calendar that would adversely affect player welfare and threaten the competitiveness, calendar, structures, and traditions of domestic football,
“This process should also involve meaningful agreements with the leagues that provide the foundations for the game.”
Likened to the controversial ‘Super League’, the Club World Cup has already faced harsh criticism.
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Gianni Infantino also addressed the controversial new 2026 World Cup format, “I have to say after this World Cup, and the success of the groups of four, we have to revisit or rediscuss the format whether we go for 16 groups of three or 12 groups of four.”
Later, Infantino revealed that a “FIFA World Series” concept is being developed, including friendly matches involving four teams from various continents during the international window in March of even-numbered years.
UEFA are opposed to the new Club World Cup as it is a direct threat to their Champions League tournament. However, FIFA offering £150milllion in prize money could be a lucrative deal for even the top clubs in Europe. Negotiations have been going on in Qatar in recent weeks but the clubs are refusing to endorse the proposals.
The FIFA president also stated that the hosts for the men’s World Cup in 2030 and the women’s World Cup in 2031 will be chosen in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
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