President Gianni Infantino's preview last December, before the Qatar 2022 final, came true this Wednesday: the FIFA Council
approved the expansion of the Club World Cup to 32 teams
and also announced
how the places
for classified in the six member Confederations.
Likewise, he made official that the 2023 edition - where the next Copa Libertadores champion will arrive - will be
Saudi Arabia
, very active in sports politics in recent years and which has just had the runner-up of this tournament three days ago, with Al Hilal led by Argentine Ramón Díaz.
Photo: REUTERS/Susana Vera
In an official statement, the Zurich-based body indicated that the next edition of the top club tournament will also be played on Arab lands: it will be between December 12 and 22, 2023, for the last time with seven participants (the
six
champions continental and the champion of the organizing country).
Like Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the world's leading crude oil exporter, has multiplied major sporting events in recent years to diversify its economy and improve its image, tarnished by accusations of repression in an ultra-conservative kingdom.
"The FIFA Council unanimously designated the Saudi Arabian Football Federation as host of the tournament from December 12 to 22, 2023," said the letter, which left the door open
to a possible reappearance of
Cristiano Ronaldo
, if is that he is consecrated champion of the Saudi Arabian League with Al-Nassr.
Argentine Ramón Díaz greets FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
Photo: Reuters/Andrew Boyers
After a test edition in 2000, the Club World Cup was established on the calendar in 2005, replacing the Intercontinental Cup, which pitted the winner of the Copa Libertadores against the winner of the Champions League.
Infantino's goal, as he had revealed at some point, was to raise the number of participants to 24 in 2021, something that if it weren't for the coronavirus pandemic, even China would have hosted.
This 2023 will be the last with the current format, because it
will be expanded to 32 participating teams
and organized every four years, in the image of the World Cup of nations.
On this subject, the FIFA Council defined the distribution of places by continent: 4 for Asia, 4 for Africa, 4 for Concacaf, 6 for Conmebol, 12 for
Europe
, one for Oceania and one for the host country.
The Confederations will determine the classification methods.
The dispute system would be similar to that of the World Cup, with an
initial phase of eight groups of four teams and a knockout round starting in the round of 16
.
After the disappearance of the Confederations Cup a year before the World Cup, all guns point to the United States receiving this first expanded edition of the club competition, as a test bench for the 2026 World Cup, which it will organize jointly with Mexico and Canada.
look too
Club World Cup: Real Madrid shouted champion against Ramón's team and despite Vietto's goals
Club World Cup: the story behind the hug between Valverde and Ancelotti after one of Real Madrid's goals
Club World Cup: Flamengo suffered but kept the consolation prize
The Champions League returns: from Messi's PSG to Enzo Fernández's Chelsea, the detail of the teams and the analysis of the crosses
