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DOHA: FIFA chief Gianni Infantino announced plans on Friday for a 32-team Club World Cup from 2025, despite reported opposition from Europe’s biggest clubs.
An expansion of the competition has long been a pet project of Infantino’s. A 24-team event, featuring eight sides from Europe, was planned for 2021 in China but was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Infantino said the new-look tournament would be even bigger than first planned.
“We had agreed a few years ago to have a new 24-team men’s Club World Cup,” the FIFA president said at the World Cup in Doha on Friday.
“It should have taken place in 2021 but was postponed because of Covid. The new competition will take place in 2025 and will feature 32 teams, making it really like a World Cup.”
Reports in the British media this week said European clubs had rejected FIFA’s proposal to launch the new-look competition.
The plans are for an expanded tournament to be held every four years instead of annually, as is the case for the current seven-team event.
Infantino said next year’s Club World Cup, in its current format, would take place in Morocco from February 1 to 11, 2023.
Morocco hosted the tournament in 2013 and again in 2014, while the most recent edition was held in the United Arab Emirates in February, with Chelsea lifting the trophy.
