The president of the International Football Federation (Fifa), Gianni Infantino, said Thursday in an interview with AFP that an enlarged Club World Cup will stimulate international competition between clubs.
“We are focusing on global competition in the Club World Cup, for example, to not only have one club from each confederation, but more participation, because we need to stimulate club football around the world”, a- he declared, on the sidelines of the World Cup final Thursday in Doha.
Two Club World Cups are being organized this year. Qatar is currently hosting the 2020 edition, which was scheduled to take place in December and has been postponed for two months due to the coronavirus pandemic, and another seven-team edition is scheduled to take place in Japan in December.
A new Club World Cup with 24 teams, including 8 European, was to take place in China this year. But the expanded competition will not start until a later date, after the one-year postponement of the Euro and Copa America, initially scheduled for 2020, in June and July of this year.
An expanded tournament could help respond to growing calls for “super leagues” from major regional and world clubs. Infantino did not say Thursday when the new format could begin.
“(But) we have already decided that the new Club World Cup will include 24 teams from all continents,” he told AFP.
“We still have to find the right niche for the new Club World Cup with 24 teams. It is obviously not an easy challenge in this time where everything is congested anyway. If we have to wait another year, we will, ”Infantino said again.