Abu Dhabi to host Club World Cup next year, Fifa confirms

The Fifa Club World Cup returns to Abu Dhabi for the fifth time, Fifa, the UAE Football Association and the Abu Dhabi Sports Council announced on Wednesday in a virtual press conference.

The UAE capital previously hosted the Club World Cup in 2009, 2010, 2017 and 2018.

Now fans can prepare for another edition of the massively popular competition early in 2022.

Barcelona and Inter Milan emerged winners of the first two editions in Abu Dhabi while Real Madrid were crowned champions of the next two in 2017 and 2018.

“We are absolutely delighted to host the Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi for the fifth time,” Aref Hamad Al Awani, General Secretary of Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said.

“It goes without saying the competition brings both the fanfavourite clubs and players from around the world. This is awesome and a tremendous honour for us.

“We would like to thank Fifa for the confidence and faith they have on us, based on the past successes of playing host to this immensely popular competition.”

Al Awani said Abu Dhabi would remain committed to staging world-class sporting events every year.

“We remain single-minded in our commitment to bringing world-class sports events to Abu Dhabi and making the UAE a central hub for sporting events,” Al Awani said.

“It is of the utmost importance to us to offer a safe environment for the event, especially after successfully hosting world-class sporting event that received praise for the organisation and for the best Covid protocols.

“We welcome fans to the Club World Cup with our traditional Arabic hospitality, state-of-theart infrastructure and stadia, with world-class travel and leisure facilities.”

Fans attending the Fifa Club World Cup next year in Abu Dhabi will have to adhere to the Covid-19 guidelines to ensure the safety of everyone involved.