FIFA CHIEF SAYS NEW CLUB WORLD CUP TOPS

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said the new 24-team format Club World Cup, when it eventually holds its first edition in China, “will be the best club competition in the world”. Infantino, addressing Asian Football Confederation member associations, said that under normal circumstances “we should have played the new Club World Cup with 24 teams in China in June 2021. We will fix a new date very soon”. While FIFA pushed back the China event, it is nevertheless still going ahead with two Club World Cups in Asia in 2021 using the current seventeam format - in Qatar in February and Japan in December. Explaining the postponement of the 24-team format, Infantino said: “We had to postpone because it was important to give space to Europe and South America to play the Euros and Copa America in June.”