Fifa will stage an expanded Club World Cup featuring 32 men’s teams from June 2025, says its president Gianni Infantino.
Football’s world governing body also hopes to introduce a women’s version, with both held every four years.
‘World Series’ friendly tournaments to be played between nations of different confederations are also planned.
“The best teams in the world will be invited to participate,” Infantino said of the Club World Cup.
He was speaking after a Fifa Council meeting in Qatar on Friday and before this weekend’s final two games of this year’s World Cup, the first to be held in the Middle East.
The Swiss also announced that the 19th edition of the Club World Cup, which runs from 1-11 February 2023, will be hosted by Morocco.
The tournament was previously held in Morocco in 2013 and 2014, and has since been hosted by Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“It has to be an ambition and mission of Fifa to organise its events in new countries,” Infantino added.
The Club World Cup is currently held annually, mid-season, with seven teams from six confederations.
In 2018, Fifa proposed to expand the tournament to 24 teams, move it to June and hold it every four years from 2021, but those plans were put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 32-team club tournament would be played in the same slot where Fifa has previously held the Confederations Cup for international teams, a year before the World Cup.
However, global players’ union Fifpro said in a statement the plan could have “serious consequences for and aggravate pressure on the welfare and employment of players”.
It added: “These decisions were taken unilaterally without seriously consulting, let alone agreeing, with the players.”
The World Leagues Forum (WLF), an organisation representing professional association football leagues, also criticised the announcement.
“As the calendar is already overloaded, with long-standing domestic club competitions and ever-expanding international competitions, Fifa’s decision creates the risk of fixture congestion, further player injuries and a distortion of competitive balance,” a WLF statement said.
As well as planning to widen tournaments, Fifa also agreed to new climate change targets at the COP26 climate conference, including pledging to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030.
Fifa aims to introduce women’s Futsal and Club World Cup
Fifa is also planning changes to the international football calendar to protect the “health and well-being of players”.
The usual September and October international windows will be combined so nations play four games across late September and early October, rather than two in each.
The other windows (November, March and June) will be unchanged but Fifa plans to use the March window in even years to organise ‘World Series’ friendly tournaments.
“We have seen the importance of teams from different continents happening more regularly,” said Infantino.
“We want to use the March windows in even years to organise friendly tournaments between four teams of four different confederations under the Fifa umbrella – Fifa World Series events.
“For women’s football, it will be very similar. We want to create a new women’s Club World Cup and a new Fifa Futsal Women’s World Cup every four years.
“We would like to see if the women’s Olympic tournament can have 16 teams (up from 12) like the men’s does.”
Fifa’s announcement comes a day after it and Uefa, Europe’s governing body, received significant backing in their bid to block a European Super League, with a report saying Fifa and Uefa’s rules were “compatible with EU competition law”.
Club representatives startled by Fifa proposals
Analysis – BBC’s Simon Stone
Uefa is understood to be relaxed about Infantino’s plan because it doesn’t cut across its competitions and is planned to be outside major national tournaments.
For the clubs – and the leagues – this is a different matter completely. No agreement has been reached on this subject.
It is understood club representatives are startled by Fifa’s proposals, pointing out it is yet to sign its Memorandum of Understanding with the European Clubs’ Association.
There are a number of issues, not least when would the games be played? Presumably in pre-season when the biggest clubs can go off and make lots of money by playing friendlies.
But the clubs and the leagues didn’t want a winter World Cup and it happened.
Infantino spoke about player welfare in his news conference. Adding more competitive fixtures to the calendar means more ‘important’ matches. If nothing is lost to compensate, it just adds to the player workload.
The Premier League referred back to its statement in November 2021, when clubs raised concerns about the negative impact Fifa’s proposal for biennial men’s World Cups would have on player welfare.
It is understood the Premier League has not seen any formal proposals around Fifa’s latest plans and will continue to engage with it via the World Leagues Forum, but expects meaningful agreements to be reached before anything is signed off.
