The Intercontinental Cup for Clubs will witness five matches
Advertise FIFA Details of the new edition of the Intercontinental Cup for Clubs, where Al Ain of the UAE, the Asian champion, will meet its guest, Auckland City of New Zealand, the Oceania champion, on Sunday at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, in the elimination match for the Africa-Asia-Pacific region.
In a tournament that will witness five matches, the winner of the Al Ain and Auckland City match will play against the African champion Al Ahly of Egypt on October 29 on the latter’s ground, and the winner will be crowned with a subsidiary prize, the Africa-Asia-Pacific Cup.
Al Ain will be a candidate on paper to overcome the Auckland City obstacle, relying on most of its players who led it to win the AFC Champions League title in the last edition at the expense of Japan’s Yokohama Marinos in the final (1-2 in the first leg and 5-1 in the second leg).
But Al Ain’s South Korean midfielder Park Young-woo warned against underestimating Auckland’s strength: “Let’s remember that our opponent is the champion of their continent, and we also won the AFC Champions League title, so the match will be difficult and strong.”
“I am looking forward to the Auckland game. It will be my first time playing at international level with clubs. When my former team Ulsan Hyundai won the AFC Champions League and participated in the 2020 Club World Cup, I joined the military service,” he continued.
For his part, Spanish coach Albert Riera, who has been leading Auckland City since 2021, acknowledged Al Ain’s strength: “We are realistic, but I will ask my players to do their best.”
He expressed his happiness at meeting Al Ain, led by Argentine coach Hernan Crespo, “whom I remember as one of the great strikers and scorers.”
Final in Doha
The current tournament format is not much different from the previous edition of the Club World Cup, which will be held every four years starting in 2025 with 32 teams participating. However, what has changed is the decentralization of the matches, after they were hosted by one country, and the European champion now plays directly in the final instead of the semi-final.
The tournament will be held in three Arab cities: Al Ain, Cairo and Doha, as the International Federation Council chose the latter to host three matches out of five.
In addition to the Al Ain and Auckland match at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, where the winner will face Al Ahly in Cairo, the 2024 Copa Libertadores winner will play Mexico’s Pachuca, winner of the North, Central American and Caribbean Champions League, on December 11 in Doha.
The winner of the match will play in what has been named the FIFA Challenge Cup on December 14, also in Doha, where they will face the winner of the Africa-Asia-Pacific Cup tie, either Al Ahli or Al Ain-Auckland.
On December 18, the Qatari capital will host what FIFA has called the final of the Intercontinental Cup for Clubs, where real madrid The Spanish, the Champions League winner, with the winner of the Challenge Cup tie.
The final of the tournament will be held on the second anniversary of the final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup for national teams, according to the International Federation of the game, noting that Qatar hosted two versions of the Club World Cup in 2019 and 2020.
Starting from the 2024 edition, more than one team in each edition will have the opportunity to play at home for the first time in a FIFA-organised competition.
The host team was determined based on the clubs’ ranking.
Competition development
Since its launch in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Cup, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup has evolved.
The first edition was held in Brazil with the participation of eight teams from six continental confederations, and was held in parallel with the Intercontinental Cup, which had brought together the champions of Europe and South America since 1960.
In October 2017, the FIFA Council approved a proposal to recognise all European and South American Intercontinental Cup winners played between 1960 and 2004 as world club champions.
After a hiatus between 2001 and 2004, the tournament resumed in 2005 under the name of the Club World Cup, with the giants of each continental confederation now competing.
The tournament then entered a new phase of development in 2024, with the launch of the Intercontinental Club Cup.
