FIFA Confirms The Club World Cup With Participants 32 Teams Starting 2025

Gianni Infantino (Photo: FIFA)

FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed that the Club World Cup with 32 teams participating will be implemented in 2025.

Infantino revealed details of the new tournament at a press conference in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup final this weekend between France and Argentina.

"We discussed several strategic principles. For men's football, we agreed to hold a new Club World Cup, this will happen in 2025 and be followed by 32 teams such as the FIFA World Cup," he said as quoted by Metro.

The already crowded football calendar initially planned to accommodate this new competition in 2021 in China. However, the plan had to be abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Infantino has yet to outline which teams will be the contestants for this event. However, he stressed that FIFA is ready to take advantage of football's increasing popularity as Qatar's 2022 World Cup successes.

"When we came to the board meeting, we were able to ensure revenue from this four-year cycle of 7.5 billion," said Infantino.

"Looking ahead, the FIFA Council approved the budget for the next four years cycle, which will be eleven billion and nearly 10 billion will go straight back to football," he added.

The format of the Club World Cup competition was attended by seven teams which lasted for two weeks. European Champions League champions, the Copa Libertadores, along with all other confederation cup winners took part in this event.

Real Madrid, who will appear in this year's edition, are the holder of the most titles after winning on four occasions. Meanwhile, Chelsea is the defending champion team.

The Club World Cup usually takes place in the second or third week of December. However, the 2022 edition had to be moved to the beginning of next year due to Qatar's 2022 World Cup.