China in line to host 2021 Club World Cup

CHINA is in line to be chosen by FIFA as host of the first edition of the expanded 24-team Club World Cup in 2021.

FIFA’s decision-making body will meet in Shanghai on Thursday to select the venue of its revamped tournament for clubs that is due to be staged every four years, replacing the little-regarded current annual seventeam format.

China is the only host for the tournament that is due to be considered by the FIFA Council for ratification, people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the details remain confidential ahead of the meeting.

The selection of the host is featured in the agenda, which was seen by the AP.

The final two editions of the Club World Cup are being held this December and in December 2020 in Qatar to help the small Persian Gulf nation prepare for the World Cup for men’s national teams in 2022.

The enlarged Club World Cup is due to be held in June-July 2021. That takes the slot previously reserved for the Confederations Cup, the competition that served as a test event in a host nation a year before the World Cup.

The 2026 World Cup is being staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico, opening up the possibility of North America getting the 2025 Club World Cup as a test event.

Amid opposition from Europe, the FIFA Council in March approved the complete overhaul of the Club World Cup for nominally a pilot edition in 2021.

FIFA originally wanted 12 European teams, but UEFA maintained there should only be eight.

Those are due to be the past four winners of the Champions League and Europa League, according to another person with knowledge of the plans. But the person said there could be a cap on how many teams come from one country to prevent domination by one domestic league of an international competition.

Currently only the Champions League winner qualifies for the Club World Cup and enters at the semifinal stage.

FIFA signed up Chinese conglomerate Wanda as a top-tier sponsor in 2016 in a deal that runs through 2030.

AP Photo ANNOUNCEMENT. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, arrives at the Pyongyang Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019. Infantino arrived in Pyongyang on the day that North Korean and South Korean teams are set to play a World Cup qualifier match in the North’s capital.