| FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud كأس العالم للأندية لكرة القدم الإمارات العربية المتحدة 2021 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | United Arab Emirates |
| Dates | 3–12 February 2022 |
| Teams | 7 (from 6 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 2 (in 1 host city) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Chelsea (1st title) |
| Runners-up |  Palmeiras |
| Third place |  Al Ahly |
| Fourth place |  Al-Hilal |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 8 |
| Goals scored | 27 (3.38 per match) |
| Attendance | 100,752 (12,594 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) Raphael Veiga (Palmeiras) Yasser Ibrahim (Al Ahly) Abdoulay Diaby (Al-Jazira) 2 goals each |
| Best player(s) | Thiago Silva (Chelsea) |
| Fair play award | Chelsea |
←2020 2022 → | |
The2021 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as theFIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 18th edition of theFIFA Club World Cup, aFIFA-organised international clubfootball tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The tournament was held from 3 to 12 February 2022 in theUnited Arab Emirates.[1]
Defending championsBayern Munich did not qualify as they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the2020–21 UEFA Champions League. The eventual winners of that competition,Chelsea, won the Club World Cup for the first time, beatingAl-Hilal of Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the semi-finals before requiringextra time to claim a 2–1 win over Brazilian sidePalmeiras in thefinal.
Anexpanded Club World Cup in China was planned to be held in June and July 2021.[2][3] However, due to fixture congestion caused by the postponement of the2020 Summer Olympics and theimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic on football, the Tokyo Olympics,UEFA European Championship andCopa América were postponed from mid-2020 to mid-2021. As a result, FIFA announced in March 2020 that they would postpone the expanded Club World Cup to later in 2021, 2022 or 2023,[4][5] before cancelling it entirely.[6]
On 4 December 2020, theFIFA Council announced that the Club World Cup, using the previous format, would be held in late 2021 and hosted by Japan.[7] However, on 8 September 2021, theJapan Football Association dropped its commitment to host the tournament, owing to the possibility of restrictions on fan attendance due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in Japan.[8][9] Numerous countries expressed interest in hosting the tournament as bidding was reopened, including Brazil, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.[10][11][12][13] On 20 October 2021, theFIFA Council named the United Arab Emirates as the host of the tournament, and postponed the event from late 2021 to early 2022.[14]
| Team | Confederation | Qualification | Qualified date | Participation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entering in thesemi-finals | ||||
| Palmeiras | CONMEBOL | Winners of the2021 Copa Libertadores | 27 November 2021 | 2nd(Previous:2020) |
| Chelsea | UEFA | Winners of the2020–21 UEFA Champions League | 29 May 2021 | 2nd(Previous:2012) |
| Entering in thesecond round | ||||
| Al-Hilal | AFC | Winners of the2021 AFC Champions League | 23 November 2021 | 2nd(Previous:2019) |
| Al Ahly | CAF | Winners of the2020–21 CAF Champions League | 17 July 2021 | 7th(Previous:2005,2006,2008,2012,2013,2020) |
 Monterrey | CONCACAF | Winners of the2021 CONCACAF Champions League | 28 October 2021 | 5th(Previous:2011,2012,2013,2019) |
| Entering in thefirst round | ||||
 AS Pirae | OFC | Nominated by OFC[note 1] | 31 December 2021 | 1st |
 Al-Jazira | AFC (host) | Winners of the2020–21 UAE Pro League | 20 October 2021[note 2] | 2nd(Previous:2017) |
Notes
The matches were played at two venues in the city ofAbu Dhabi, both of which hosted matches at the2019 AFC Asian Cup.
| Abu Dhabi | Location of the host city of the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup. | |
|---|---|---|
| Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium | Al Nahyan Stadium | |
| Capacity:37,500 | Capacity:15,000 | |
 |  | |
Fivereferees, tenassistant referees, and sevenvideo assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.[18][19]
| Confederation | Referees | Assistant referees | Video assistant referees |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFC |  Chris Beath |
| Ammar Al-Jeneibi |
| CAF |  Mustapha Ghorbal |
| |
| CONCACAF | César Ramos |
|  Drew Fischer |
| CONMEBOL |  Fernando Rapallini |
|
|
| UEFA |  Clément Turpin |
|
One support referee was also named for the tournament.
| Confederation | Support referee |
|---|---|
| OFC |  David Yareboinen |
Semi-automatedoffside technology was tested during the tournament.[20]
Each team named a 23-man squad (three of whom had to be goalkeepers). Injury replacements were allowed until 24 hours before the team's first match.[21]
The draw of the tournament was held on 29 November 2021, 17:00CET (UTC+1), at the FIFA headquarters inZürich, Switzerland, to decide the matchups of the second round (between the first round winner and teams from AFC, CAF and CONCACAF), and the opponents of the two second round winners in the semi-finals (against teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA).[22]
If a match was tied after normal playing time:[21]
| First round | Second round | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
| 6 February –Abu Dhabi (MBZ) | ||||||||||||||
| 3 February –Abu Dhabi (MBZ) | Al-Hilal | 6 | 9 February –Abu Dhabi (MBZ) | |||||||||||
| Al-Jazira | 4 | Al-Jazira | 1 | Al-Hilal | 0 | |||||||||
| AS Pirae | 1 | Chelsea | 1 | 12 February –Abu Dhabi (MBZ) | ||||||||||
| Chelsea(a.e.t.) | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 8 February –Abu Dhabi (ANS) | Palmeiras | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 5 February –Abu Dhabi (ANS) | Palmeiras | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Al Ahly | 1 | Al Ahly | 0 | |||||||||||
| Monterrey | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Match for fifth place | Match for third place | |||||||||||||
| 9 February –Abu Dhabi (ANS) | 12 February –Abu Dhabi (ANS) | |||||||||||||
| Al-Jazira | 1 | Al-Hilal | 0 | |||||||||||
| Monterrey | 3 | Al Ahly | 4 | |||||||||||
All times are local,GST (UTC+4).[23]
1 own goal
Mohammed Rabii (Al-Jazira, againstAS Pirae)Zayed Sultan (Al-Jazira, againstMonterrey)The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.Thiago Silva ofChelsea won theGolden Ball award, sponsored byAdidas, which is jointly awarded with theAlibaba Cloud Award to recognise the player of the tournament.[32]
| Adidas Golden Ball Alibaba Cloud Award | Adidas Silver Ball | Adidas Bronze Ball |
|---|---|---|
| Thiago Silva (Chelsea) | Dudu (Palmeiras) | Danilo (Palmeiras) |
| FIFA Fair Play Award | ||
| Chelsea | ||
FIFA also named aman of the match for the best player in each game at the tournament.
| |
| Tournaments | |
| Finals | |
| Squads | |
| Qualification | |
| Statistics | |
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