China to host Club World Cup 2021

China will host the first edition of the new, expanded 24-team Club World Cup in 2021.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino told reporters on Thursday, following a meeting of the global soccer body’s decision-making council in Shanghai, the decision was unanimous and it would take place in June-July of that year. Top European clubs have previously said they will boycott the tournament.

The competition, which currently features seven teams, will be expanded to 24 teams from June 2021. The criteria for selecting the teams will be decided in the next few weeks.

“It is a historic decision for football,” Infantino said of the decision, adding there were no other candidates.

“The new (tournament) will be a competition which anyone who loves football is looking forward to. It is the first real and true (Club) World Cup where the best clubs will compete.

“It will allow us to generate significant revenues but I want to underline this, very, very clearly… FIFA will have zero out of this because we will reinvest this in football.”

Infantino also announced that the hosts for the 2030 World Cup would be chosen at the FIFA Congress in 2024 and that the global soccer body intended to invest $1 billion in women’s football over the next four years.

“The Women’s World Cup that just happened in France has moved (the sport) to the next level,” Infantino said. “We need to work on that, build on that,” he added.

Qatar will stage the final two editions of the seven-team tournament. The 2019 competition begins on 11 December, with Liverpool entering at the semi-final stage a week later.

In March, the European Club Association (ECA) expressed concern about expanding the tournament.
ECA board members, including Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, signed a letter saying they were “firmly against any potential approval of a revised CWC”, adding that no ECA clubs would take part.