Uefa is ready to back Fifa’s proposed expansion of the Club World Cup to 48 teams for the next edition in 2029 in a sign of improving relations between their respective presidents, Aleksander Ceferin and Gianni Infantino.
European football’s governing body had opposed plans to grow the Club World Cup over concerns an expanded tournament could threaten the status of the Champions League, but Uefa is now willing to back Fifa in return for an undertaking that the competition will not be held every two years.
Real Madrid proposed a two-year cycle for the Club World Cup during talks with Fifa in Miami last June, although given the opposition from Uefa and all the domestic European leagues that idea has not progressed. In a related development Real last week ended their five-year legal battle with Uefa by formally withdrawing from the European Super League,. They appear ready to fall in line with the global football establishment led by Infantino, Ceferin and Nasser al-Khelaifi, the Paris Saint-Germain president who chairs European Football Clubs.
The Guardian revealed before the Club World Cup in the US last summer Fifa was open to expanding the tournament from 32 teams, primarily to guarantee the participation of more of the biggest European clubs after Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester United failed to qualify.
Infantino then said in a speech at the general assembly of European Football Clubs in Rome last October that expansion was on the agenda, saying Fifa was working “to see how we can make this event bigger, even better, even more impactful”.
Uefa’s opposition was a potentially significant obstacle, but another remains with Fifa subject to legal action from the lobby group European Leagues that has been taken to the European Commission. That relates to the international match calendar, including decisions concerning the Club World Cup.
While some at Uefa remain concerned that the huge financial rewards of the Club World Cup will have a destabilising effect on European football, an expansion to 48 clubs is regarded as less disruptive than making it a biennial event.
Although the fine detail has yet to be agreed European clubs would be among the main beneficiaries of the expansion, with the number of Uefa qualifiers likely to increase from 12 last year to 16 in 2029. Chelsea won £85m from the competition’s £774m prize pot for winning it last year and adding more European teams would have implications for the competitive balance of the Champions League.
Uefa’s position is the latest sign of improved relations with Fifa, which reached a nadir when Ceferin and a group of European delegates including the Football Association chair, Debbie Hewitt, staged a walkout at Fifa congress in Paraguay last May in protest at the late arrival of Infantino, who had been on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East involving Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman.
With Ceferin and Infantino likely to seek re-election for fourth terms next year, sources close to both men have indicated that a period of calm is in both their interests.
Spain and Morocco are favourites to host the next Club World Cup, which will take place in the summer of 2029, before their co-hosting of the 2030 World Cup.
Uefa declined to comment.
