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New format for FIFA Club World Cup

Sean Miller Fan

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Oct 30, 2001
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One of the main reasons they got rid of Confederations Cup was to make the FIFA Club World Cup as a once every 4 year tournament, the summer before the World Cup. The first one in the new format is supposed to take place in China next summer. Of course, a lot of this can change due to the virus but this is how its supposed to work:

24 teams
6 groups of 4
Each confederation decided how to allocate their bids

The 2021 tournament qualifiers will be different than the ones going forward because of the newness and the fact there wasn't a full 4 year cycle. But with the 2025 tournament widely believed to be held in the US, this is how I see the bids being allocated:

Europe: 8 (2022-25 Champions League and Europa League winners with runners-up probably qualifying in the event of repeat champions)

South America: 6 (2022-25) Copa Libertadores champions with maybe a mini tournament of runners-up to decide the last 2 places

CONCACAF: 3 (2024 and 2025 CCL Champs plus maybe a playoff between the 2021 and 2022 champs?)

Africa: 3 (similar to CONCACACF)

Asia: 2.5 (2024 and 2025 Champs. 2022 and 2023 Champs play each other for the right to play the Oceania rep for a bid)

Oceania: 0.5 (2022-25 Champs have a tournament where the winner plays the 2022/23 Asia winner)

Host: 1 (2021-24 MLS Champs play a mini-tournament in Spring 2025 to decide the bid)

This is FIFA so I am sure it won't be decided like this but this seems to be the most fair way to do it. Do you like this new Club World Cup idea better than the Confed Cup? I don't, really but I'll watch it.
 
Last edited:
One of the main reasons they got rid of Confederations Cup was to make the FIFA Club World Cup as a once every 4 year tournament, the summer before the World Cup. The first one in the new format is supposed to take place in China next summer. Of course, a lot of this can change due to the virus but this is how its supposed to work:

24 teams
6 groups of 4
Each confederation decided how to allocate their bids

The 2021 tournament qualifiers will be different than the ones going forward because of the newness and the fact there wasn't a full 4 year cycle. But with the 2025 tournament widely believed to be held in the US, this is how I see the bids being allocated:

Europe: 8 (2022-25 Champions League and Europa League winners with runners-up probably qualifying in the event of repeat champions)

South America: 6 (2022-25) Copa Libertadores champions with maybe a mini tournament of runners-up to decide the last 2 places

CONCACAF: 3 (2024 and 2025 CCL Champs plus maybe a playoff between the 2021 and 2022 champs?)

Africa: 3 (similar to CONCACACF)

Asia: 2.5 (2024 and 2025 Champs. 2022 and 2023 Champs play each other for the right to play the Oceania rep for a bid)

Oceania: 0.5 (2022-25 Champs have a tournament where the winner plays the 2022/23 Asia winner)

Host: 1 (2021-24 MLS Champs play a mini-tournament in Spring 2025 to decide the bid)

This is FIFA so I am sure it won't be decided like this but this seems to be the most fair way to do it. Do you like this new Club World Cup idea better than the Confed Cup? I don't, really but I'll watch it.

Bumping this since FK brought this up in the other thread. FIFA is still planning on rebranding the Club World Cup as a large summer tournament held every few years, taking the place of the Confderations Cup but not a ton of information has come out on it. I guess, in theory I like the idea but with there being talk about the actual World Cup going to every 2 or every 3 years, not sure how they'd fit this in. Maybe:

Year 1: World Cup
Year 2: FIFA Club World Cup
Year 3: Continental tournaments
Year 4: World Cup

No idea how they'd fit WC and Euro qualifiers in.
 
Bumping this since FK brought this up in the other thread. FIFA is still planning on rebranding the Club World Cup as a large summer tournament held every few years, taking the place of the Confderations Cup but not a ton of information has come out on it. I guess, in theory I like the idea but with there being talk about the actual World Cup going to every 2 or every 3 years, not sure how they'd fit this in. Maybe:

Year 1: World Cup
Year 2: FIFA Club World Cup
Year 3: Continental tournaments
Year 4: World Cup

No idea how they'd fit WC and Euro qualifiers in.
There’s just way too much football, right? I don’t have the answers but it just seems like all the domestic leagues can drop their most meaningless Cup competition and make room for something like this. But I’m sure there would be powerful people and fans outraged if England were to end the League Cup (Carabao Cup) as an example.

going to a once every two years for the World Cup is awful. It’s just a huge money grab. They should have compromised and gone once every 3 years instead.

back to the club World Cup, it has no real meaning in Europe, except for the one team that competes for it each year. But in South America it’s a huge deal. You could see the passion and emotion from the Brazilian team and fans yesterday. And a world championship should be a big deal, right? MLB, NFL and NBA proclaim a world champion every year, but only soccer has a true world champion.

if the MLS can get themselves to a point where a team can compete in the club World Cup, it could be a cool thing that promotes the sport. I would love watching a club like FC Dallas playing Barcelona for the world championship one day on a super bowl Sunday. But I don’t think an MLS team ever competed for one because they never win the Concacaf champions league. Ever. Maybe the Galaxy did it once way back in the day.
 
No idea how they'd fit WC and Euro qualifiers in.


They can't. Which is why you haven't heard anything about the expanded Club World Cup recently. If they can get their dream of stealing money every other year, er, ah, I mean holding a World Cup every other year, then there is no way that they are going to play a 24 team Club World Cup. At least not if they want any of the best teams to give it any sort of consideration at all.
 
There’s just way too much football, right? I don’t have the answers but it just seems like all the domestic leagues can drop their most meaningless Cup competition and make room for something like this. But I’m sure there would be powerful people and fans outraged if England were to end the League Cup (Carabao Cup) as an example.

going to a once every two years for the World Cup is awful. It’s just a huge money grab. They should have compromised and gone once every 3 years instead.

back to the club World Cup, it has no real meaning in Europe, except for the one team that competes for it each year. But in South America it’s a huge deal. You could see the passion and emotion from the Brazilian team and fans yesterday. And a world championship should be a big deal, right? MLB, NFL and NBA proclaim a world champion every year, but only soccer has a true world champion.

if the MLS can get themselves to a point where a team can compete in the club World Cup, it could be a cool thing that promotes the sport. I would love watching a club like FC Dallas playing Barcelona for the world championship one day on a super bowl Sunday. But I don’t think an MLS team ever competed for one because they never win the Concacaf champions league. Ever. Maybe the Galaxy did it once way back in the day.

I think an every 3 year World Cup isnt this bad but 2 years is terrible.
 
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