Footballers and leagues slam Fifa’s new Club World Cup plans

The global football players’ union and professional leagues have criticised Fifa’s revamped Club World Cup, accusing the global body of prioritising its own interests while failing to consider players’ health.

It is set to feature 32 teams and will be played from June 15 to July 13 2025, while a new Intercontinental Cup will be played annually from 2024, according to the world soccer governing body’s head, Gianni Infantino.

The announcement drew criticism from the global players’ union FIFPro and the World Leagues Forum (WLF), an organisation representing 44 major professional leagues that is chaired by Premier League chief Richard Masters.

Fifa had announced an expanded Club World Cup earlier in 2023 and unanimously voted to appoint the US as host for the first edition of the event. The Fifa council, meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to ratify the dates for the Club World Cup, also confirmed that 2024’s Intercontinental Cup will have the Uefa Champions League winner playing a team that will come through intercontinental playoffs.

“The tournament will feature all current confederation premier club competition champions,” Infantino said. “[It] concludes with a final at a neutral venue between the Uefa Champions League winners and the winners of an intercontinental playoff between clubs from the other confederations.”

The Intercontinental Cup playoffs will be played on December 14 2024, followed by the final on December 18.

The 2025 edition of the Club World Cup, which will be held every four years, will have eight groups of four, with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout stages — the same format as the World Cup.

The current version of the Fifa Club World Cup, an annual competition with seven teams, will be discontinued after the tournament now being hosted by Saudi Arabia.

The existing format sees the European and South American champions enter the tournament in the semifinal phase, while champions from the other confederations come through earlier rounds.

The dates of the Club World Cup, however, give European teams that qualify little time to rest between the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.

The European season traditionally ends in May, with the Champions League final taking place by the first week of June, while the new season kicks off in August.

WLF chair Masters said the forum is unhappy it has been overlooked in Fifa’s decision-making process.

In a letter seen by Reuters, Masters told Infantino the expansion of Fifa’s competitions in recent years was detrimental to other soccer stakeholders and accused the global body of prioritising its own interests.

Masters also said the June-July schedule will affect player availability for national leagues at the start of the season in August, while also raising questions about player workload and health risks.

FIFPro said the decision to add a bigger Club World Cup at the end of the European season demonstrates a lack of consideration for players’ physical and mental health, and disregards their personal and family lives.

“The expanded competition will undercut the rest and recovery time of these players at the end of the 2024/25 season, and further disrupt national employment markets by changing the balance between national and international competitions,” FIFPro said.

“Players will have to perform at the end of an 11-month season with little prospect of getting enough rest before the following season starts.

“The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game are the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance and risks to career longevity.”

Reuters