As of 2025, theFIFA Club World Cup and theFIFA Intercontinental Cup coexist as current FIFA club world championships, awarding the titles ofquadrennial world club champion andannual world club champion, respectively, to the winning clubs.[2][3]
From its formation in 1960 to 1979, the competition was contested over a two-legged tie, with a playoff if necessary until 1968, andpenalty kicks later. During the 1970s, European participation in the Intercontinental Cup became a running question due to controversial events in the1969 final,[13] and some European Champions Club' winner teams withdrew.[14] From 1980 until 2004, the competition was contested over a single match held in Japan and sponsored by multinational automakerToyota, which offered a secondary trophy, the Toyota Cup.[15]
Throughout the history of football, several competitions were created as attempts to determine the "best club team of the world", such as theFootball World Championship, theSmall Club World Cup, the 1909/1911Lipton Trophy, the 1951Copa Rio, theISL, the1957 Tournoi de Paris and the Intercontinental Cup. Though some of these cups have been mentioned by FIFA sources as Club World Cups or related concepts, or been the object of recognition requests to FIFA,[a] the Intercontinental Cup is the only one recognised by FIFA, with the approval of itsExecutive Committee/Council, as the precursor to the FIFA Club World Cup. All the Intercontinental Cup winning teams were regarded by worldwidemass media and the football community, FIFA included (as News Center productions and not cataloged on the FIFA website as official entity documents),[21] as "world champions"de facto.[22][23][24][25] On 27 October 2017, the FIFA Council, while not promoting statistical unification between the Intercontinental Cup and the Club World Cup, in respect to the history of the two tournaments[26] (which merged in 2005),[27] has officialised (de jure) the title of the Intercontinental Cup, recognising all the winners as official club world champions,[28][29][30][31] with the same title of theFIFA Club World Cup winners, or "FIFA Club World Champions".[32][29][33][34][35][36][37][38]
FIFA Club World Cup is an international men'sassociation football competition organised byFIFA, the sport's globalgoverning body. The tournament officially assigns the world title.[39] The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partnerInternational Sport and Leisure.[40] Since2005, the competition has been held every year, and has been hosted by Brazil, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The FIFA Club World Cup's prestige is perceived quite differently in different parts of the football world; while it is widely regarded as the most distinguished club-level trophy in South America,[41][42] it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe compared to theUEFA Champions League and commonly lacks recognition as a high-ranking contest.[43][44]
The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in2000. but the failure of ISL caused FIFA to discontinue the tournament and cancel the following year competition to be held in Spain. This first failed installment ran parallel with theIntercontinental Cup. FIFA finally managed to buy the prestigious Japanese event and in 2005,[citation needed] after the Intercontinental Cup'slast edition, that competition was merged with FIFA and a new trophy replaced the Intercontinental Cup Trophy as well as the Toyota Cup. In 2006, the tournament took its current name.
The format used between 2007 and 2023 involves seven teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks; the winners of that year'sAFC Champions League (Asia),CAF Champions League (Africa),CONCACAF Champions League (North America),Copa Libertadores (South America),OFC Champions League (Oceania) andUEFA Champions League (Europe), along with the host nation's national champions, participate in a straightknock-out tournament. The host nation's national champions dispute a play-off against the Oceania champions, from which the winner joins the champions of Asia, Africa, and North America at the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go on to face the European and South American champions, who enter the semi-final stage, for a place in the final. In Europe the tournament is almost ignored by the mass media, also because of its sporting level, considered inferior to the Intercontinental Cup,[45] indeed when the sides used to meet in a one-off game in Japan (and even before), this was still a fair fight. The opening up of the global market in football has changed the balance. These days the best South Americans (and the stars from all the other continents) are usually playing in Europe.[46][47] On 16 December 2022, FIFA announced anexpanded tournament that would have 32 teams, quadrennial cadence, and start in June 2025.[48][49][50]
^The 1909/1911 Lipton Trophy has been mentioned at FIFA.com as the first attempt at creating a World Cup,[16] the 1951 Copa Rio has been mentioned on FIFA Instagram and FIFA.com as a Club World Cup, and the 1957 Tournoi de Paris mentioned at FIFA.com as a prelude to the success of the Intercontinental Cup. The 1951 cup was also the object of a recognition request to FIFA by its championsPalmeiras, whereby the FIFA Secretary-General sent faxes to Palmeiras in 2007 and 2013 informing of its upcoming recognition as a Club World Cup; however, the 2014 FIFA Executive Committee meeting approved it only as a worldwide club competition, not as a Club World Cup.[17][18][19][20]
In synthesis FIFA has three types of world champions: Intercontinental Cup and those deriving from the Club World Cup (the two competitions, albeit different, confer the same title, that of FIFA club world champions)[142][143][144] and from 2024 also the winners of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup have been added to the count.[1] So in accordance to what is officially communicated by FIFA, the total count of official[145][9][146][143] world titles is as follows:[147][148][149][150][151][152][144][142][52]
^- The winners of UEFA Champions League undertake to part in the following competitions: a) The UEFA Super Cup, which is held at the start of each new season.b) Intercontinental competitions arranged by UEFA and other confederations.- Clubs are not authorized to represent UEFA or the UEFA Champions League without UEFA's prior written approval. cfr."We care about football - Regulation of the UEFA Champions League 2003/04"(PDF). Union of European Football Associations. p. 2.Archived(PDF) from the original on 5 November 2015.
^abFor FIFA statute, official competitions are those for representative teams organized by FIFA or any confederation. Representative teams are usually national teams but also club teams that represent a confederation in interconfederal competitions or a member association in a continental competition cfr."FIFA Statutes, April 2016 edition"(PDF). p. 5.Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 December 2021. cfr."FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018: Statistical-kit"(PDF). 10 December 2018. p. 13.Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 August 2021. cfr."2018/19 UEFA Champions League regulations"(PDF). p. 10. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 12 May 2018.
^Until 1955 FIFA limited itself to authorizing the creation of international competitions for clubs only if they were organized by at least two member associations. From 1955 he assigned the confederations the exclusive right to organize competitions deemed official. cfr.Union des Associations Européennes de Football (October 2004)."50 years of the European Cup"(PDF). pp. 7–9.Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 June 2019.
^Fédération Internationale de Football Association, ed. (18 December 2015)."Japan Aiming High"(PDF).The FIFA Weekly. No. 50. pp. 8–9.OCLC862248672. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on February 2, 2017. Retrieved30 January 2017.
^“While it does not promote the statistical unification of tournaments, that is, has not absorbed to the Intercontinental Cup (merged with FIFA Club World Cup in 2005), FIFA is the only organization with worldwide jurisdiction over continental confederations and, then, the only one that can confer a title on that level, ergo the title assigned by FIFA (with Official Documents issued after the Council decision) to the winners of the Intercontinental Cup is legally a FIFA world title." cfr."FIFA Statutes, April 2016 edition"(PDF). p. 19.Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 December 2021. cfr.
^“While it does not promote the statistical unification of tournaments, that is, has not absorbed to the Intercontinental Cup (merged with FIFA Club World Cup in 2005), the title was conferred from the world federation (with Official Documents issued after the Council decision) so it is legally a FIFA world title" cfr."FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019™"(PDF). p. 12.Archived(PDF) from the original on 17 July 2021. cfr.
^Nakanishi, Masanori "Komabano"; de Arruda, Marcelo Leme (30 April 2006)."FIFA Club World Championship 2005".Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved6 March 2013.
^Nakanishi, Masanori "Komabano"; de Arruda, Marcelo Leme (10 May 2007)."FIFA Club World Championship 2006".Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved6 March 2013.
^"Shootout sends bronze to Urawa".FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 16 December 2007. Retrieved6 March 2013.
^Nakanishi, Masanori "Komabano"; de Arruda, Marcelo Leme (21 May 2009)."FIFA Club World Championship 2008".Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved6 March 2013.
^King, Ian; Stokkermans, Karel (20 December 2015)."FIFA Club World Cup 2015".Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved13 September 2016.
^"Real Madrid – Kashima Antlers".FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 18 December 2016. Archived fromthe original on December 17, 2016. Retrieved18 December 2016.
^"Club América – Atlético Nacional".FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 18 December 2016. Archived fromthe original on December 19, 2016. Retrieved18 December 2016.
^ab“While it does not promote the statistical unification of tournaments, that is, has not absorbed to the Intercontinental Cup (merged with FIFA Club World Cup in 2005), the title was conferred from the world federation (with Official Document issued by the Council) so it is legally a FIFA world title" cfr."FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019™"(PDF). p. 12.Archived(PDF) from the original on 17 July 2021. cfr.
^"Official (plural officials), from the Latin officiālis. 1. The official word is also used to refer to what is recognized or derives from an authority. cfr.dictionary.com."Official, definition". 2. Approved by the government or someone in power. cfr.dictionary.cambridge.org."official". It is synonymous with legal, legitimate, approved, valid. cfr.thesaurus.com."Synonyms for official".
^FIFA in its statute recognizes as official all competitions organized by itself and by the continental confederations; indeed, on its website, it calls the competitions played under its auspices simply "FIFA Tournaments". cfr.FIFA (April 2016)."FIFA Statutes, April 2016 edition"(PDF). p. 5.Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 December 2021. cfr."FIFA tournaments".FIFA.com. FIFA.
Panathinaikos replaced the champions
Ajax who declined to participate.[64]
Juventus replaced the champions
Atlético Madrid replaced the champions
Bayern Munich who declined to participate.[68]
Liverpool who declined to participate.[71]
Malmö FF replaced the champions
Marseille who were suspended due toa match fixing and bribery scandal.[86]
Spain
Mexico
Brazil
Argentina (6)
Uruguay (2)
Portugal (1)
Paraguay (1)
Serbia (1)
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