FIFA president Gianni Infantino has introduced that the Membership World Cup shall be expanded to 32 of “the perfect groups on this planet” from 2025.
- Seven groups participate at current
- Expanded to rival Champions League
- World Cup format being mirrored
WHAT HAPPENED? World soccer’s governing physique has wished to have a home competitors in place that may compete with the UEFA Champions League for a while, and people plans at the moment are coming to fruition. The Membership World Cup presently options simply seven groups – with the winners of every confederation’s most prestigious trophy competing for the worldwide title – however the format shall be tinkered with to carry it extra according to the worldwide World Cup.
WHAT THEY SAID: Infantino has mentioned: “As you’ll keep in mind, we had agreed a number of years in the past to have a brand new males’s Membership World Cup with 24 groups. This could have taken place in 2021 [but] was postponed due to Covid. The brand new males’s Membership World Cup will due to this fact happen in 2025 and can function 32 groups, the perfect groups on this planet. In fact, the main points of that also must be mentioned and agreed, however the 32-team event will go forward, making it actually like a World Cup.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Infantino went on to disclose that the 2023 Membership World Cup shall be staged in Morocco, whereas additionally asserting plans for a brand new Ladies’s Membership World Cup and the launch of a FIFA World Sequence – which is able to enable high nations from throughout the globe to compete on a extra common foundation. He added: “The significance of getting matches between nationwide groups of various continents extra commonly, the concept of that, the precept, was agreed and elaborated on. [The plan] is to make use of the March home windows within the even years, the World Cup years, the Euros years and the Copa America years, and organise pleasant tournaments between 4 groups from 4 totally different confederations, in order that approach everybody can acquire this expertise of taking part in one another, below in fact, the FIFA umbrella, so the FIFA World Sequence kind of occasions.”
IN THREE PHOTOS:
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WHAT NEXT? Chelsea are the present holders of the FIFA Membership World Cup crown, having seen off Copa Libertadores winners Palmeiras in 2021, whereas Argentina and France are set to lock horns on Sunday within the 2022 World Cup ultimate.