Tue, August 19, 2025
Club World Cup to potentially be held every 2 years and expand by 16 teams
FIFA could potentially hold the Club World Cup every 2 years from 2029 and expand the tournament by 16 teams, from 32 to 48 like the World Cup structure, triggering further backlash, as reported by The Guardian.
Even though leagues, such as FIFPRO and LALIGA, took legal action against FIFA due to its “overloaded” international calendar, it appears FIFA may still go ahead with this expansion. The international match calendar is fixed until 2030 but is open for negotiation after this.
The Club World Cup was already expanded this year with 32 teams in total. Now, Real Madrid reportedly proposed the idea of holding the Club World Cup every 2 years, and the other clubs that failed to qualify this year, including Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool and Napoli, seem to be supporting the proposal to make the event biennial.
Some argue the qualifying system is unfair. For example, Liverpool was unable to participate this year because the system only allows two clubs per country to take part, and Man City and Chelsea had guaranteed their place.
Having won the Champions League in the pre-determined four-year cycle, they earned automatic qualification and ruled Liverpool out despite being ranked above Chelsea by UEFA. Red Bull Salzburg, though, gained a spot ahead of the likes of Liverpool, despite being the 15th-best team not to win the Champions League as they were not competing with two other teams from Austria, as stated by This Is Anfield.
Another reason these clubs are so eager involves prize money. Chelsea won £85m this year. FIFA is largely funded by Saudi Arabia’s Surj Sports Investments.
Sources have indicated that FIFA may be willing to remove the June international break to ease player workloads and create space for events such as the Club World Cup. An international break is a temporary suspension of domestic club league matches to allow players to represent their national teams in qualifiers and friendlies for major tournaments like the World Cup or European Championship. However, this would be opposed by UEFA, which uses summer dates to stage the finals of its Nations League competition.
Richard Masters, Premier League Chief Executive, expressed his concerns: “FIFA was put on earth really to regulate the global game and to run international football, and the Club World Cup is a move into club football…
The leagues and the players have not been consulted at all on the timing and scheduling of the competition, and I think whatever iteration of it may come next, we do need to be consulted on that…
Obviously, it does have an impact on the scheduling of the Premier League season, that much is clear. We’re asking for a seat at the table, a proper discussion for the leagues.”
FIFA also faced backlash for awarding the 2025 Club World Cup to the United States without a formal bidding process, it has been criticised for its relationship with Saudi Arabia due to the country’s human rights violations, and most recently, around 100,000 players are seeking multibillion-pound compensation in a class action against FIFA following the European Court of Justice’s ruling last year that FIFA’s transfer regulations were unlawful.
