FIFA announces 32-team Club World Cup from 2025
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Doha: Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA on Friday announced that the federation is planning to conduct 32-team Club World Cup beginning from 2025.
The competition currently pits the winners of the main continental club competitions against each other every year, but the new version will feature 32 teams from across the globe and take place once every four years.
"It will be a Club World Cup of 32 teams, every four years, and the first edition will be in the summer of 2025," the chief of the global football governing body said.
The FIFA President also announced Morocco as the host of the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup, which is set to take place in early 2023.
Morocco will stage the event from February 1-11 under the old format with seven teams: the winners of the Champions League from the six confederations of the ruling body FIFA, plus a team from the host nation.
The news of Morocco hosting the event comes in the midst of uplifting performances from the Atlas Lions during the 2022 World Cup as they became the first African and Arab country to qualify for the semifinals in the tournament's history. Morocco previously hosted the FIFA Club World Cup in 2013 and 2014.
The decision to award the Club World Cup was approved at the FIFA Council meeting, which was held earlier on Friday, and will feature seven teams, including Real Madrid as European champions.
The international match calendar will also be altered from 2025, with one extended break spanning four matches in late September and early October replacing two separate windows in September and October. The other windows in November, March and June would remain unchanged, it was announced.
A reformed Club World Cup with 24 teams was originally scheduled to debut in 2021 in China but was scrapped to allow the 2020 Euros and Copa America to take place after a one-year postponement due to the coronavirus.
FIFA also confirmed that the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2023 will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates Football Association and the 2025 edition by the Seychelles Football Federation.
-IANS Input