The president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, has announced the holding of a Club World Cup with 32 teams for the year 2025. He informed that the details of the competition will still be negotiated. The decision was made by the FIFA Council.
“The new World Cup will take place in 2025 and will have 32 teams. The details are still to be discussed. It will be like a World Cup,” said the FIFA president.
There is great resistance from UEFA and European clubs to this type of tournament in competition with the Champions League. Fifa had already implemented a previous project for a World Cup extended to 24 teams and had to withdraw: the body claims it was due to the Covid pandemic. But Infantino stressed that this time the project will not back down:
“I know what we have decided is that there will be a 32-team World Cup, to be played every four years. It will be played in the summer, at the time when the Confederations Cup was. It will be a little longer. But it will have the best teams in the world. There will be details that will be decided by the interested parties (bodies and clubs),” Infantino said.
“We had a plan for the Club World Cup and it was cancelled. And we did it because we want to favor the Copa América and the Euro, not increase it. This Club World Cup is not included in the total of $11 billion in revenue, not we take that into account. We’ll have even more income than that.”
Another announcement of Infantino was the holding of friendly matches between national teams from different continents. The idea would be to create a FIFA World Series in the March-FIFA date windows in even-numbered years. That is, those who have the World Cup or Copa America / Eurocopa. The intention is to increase the interaction between the continents since Brazilian teamfor example, he has practically not played for European teams in the last cycle.
In the context of the selections, Fifa has strengthened the adjustment in the Fifa date of September and October. The playing period usually includes two separate moments for two matches to take place. Fifa want the trip to be combined into a single break, with enough time to play four matches in one away game. Thus, intercontinental travel for players would be reduced overall.
Regarding the 2030 World Cup, Fifa has warned that the definition of the host will take place in 2024. South America has a candidacy, with the group formed by Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay. The Europeans will try to take the dispute with Portugal, Spain and Ukraine.
