Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, made the announcement on Friday that Morocco will host the next Club World Cup in February, and that the planned expanded version of the event will now begin in 2025.
At a press conference in Doha, Infantino informed reporters that the tournament, which is returning to Morocco for the third time, will take place from February 1 to February 11, 2023.
Infantino has long wanted to expand the Club World Cup. In 2021, a 24-team competition with eight European teams was scheduled to take place in China. However, the coronavirus pandemic forced the event to be postponed.
According to Infantino, 32 teams would participate in the new tournament, which would begin in 2025.
“We had agreed a few years ago to have a new 24-team men’s Club World Cup,” reads the advertisement. It was supposed to take place in 2021, but because of Covid, it was moved up,” the FIFA president stated.
READ ALSO: Morocco fans riot in France and Belgium after World Cup defeat, killing a 14-year-old boy. “The new competition will take place in 2025 and will feature 32 teams, making it really like a World Cup,” he added, without providing any additional details.
The Club World Cup was held in Morocco in 2013 and again in 2014. The most recent tournament, which Chelsea won in February, was held in the United Arab Emirates.
For the time being, the competition will continue in its current format, featuring the six continental champions and the host nation’s best team.
After winning the UEFA Champions League this past season, Real Madrid will represent Europe. The Spanish team won the Club World Cup in Morocco in 2014.
Flamengo of Brazil, Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, Wydad Casablanca of Morocco, Seattle Sounders from the US and New Zealand’s Auckland City are the other momentum mainland champions.