Following the decision taken in December 2022 to expand the FIFA Club World Cup from 24 to 32 teams, with the first such edition set to take place in June-July 2025, the FIFA Council Tuesday revealed details for the new format of the competition.
The resulting allocation of the Club World Cup is as follows: AFC (Asia) – 4, CAF (Africa) – 4, Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean) – 4, CONMEBOL (South America) – 6, OFC (Oceania) – 1, UEFA (Europe) – 12 and tournament host – 1.
In relation to the FIFA Club World Cup 2023, which is due to be played under the current format with seven clubs, FIFA has named Saudi Arabia as host nation for the tournament that will run from 12 to 22 December.
This represents the second major football competition landed by Saudi this month, after officially being confirmed as hosts for the 2027 Asian Cup.
Meanwhile, the FIFA Council also approved the organization’s 2022 annual report which confirmed record revenue of $7.6 billion during the 2019‑2022 cycle and a projected $11 billion income during the 2023‑2026 cycle.
For the record, revenue for the previous 2015‑2018 cycle of the Russia World Cup was $6.4 billion
The extra income was largely boosted by sponsorship deals during the period, with several new agreements also announced on the eve of the tournament’s opener in November.
“FIFA’s unprecedented investment in football is the result of our solid financial transparency and stands as a concrete example of how we are aiming to make football truly global,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “The resounding success of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar has been key to the organisation’s ability to fulfil its mission in relation to our member associations and the world of football, despite the multiple challenges we faced during the past cycle, not least the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For the 2026 World Cup, which will expand from 32 teams to 48, FIFA will have several top-tier sponsorship spots to fill as Coca-Cola, adidas, and Wanda are the only partners to have extended their respective deals for that competition.
In addition, the FIFA Council were also updated on the appointment of the following tournaments by the FIFA Congress as per the following dates: Women’s World Cup 2027 in Q2 2024 (with bid regulations for approval in March 2023), World Cup 2030 in Q3 2024 (with bid regulations for approval in June 2023) and Women’s World Cup 2031 in Q2 2025 (with bid regulations for approval in Q2 2024).
