Chelsea will be given an automatic place in the first edition of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup in the summer of 2025.
The governing body have confirmed that the Stamford Bridge side will be involved in the summer tournament because they won the 2021 Champions League - and it is set to result in a payday of at least £25m.
Real Madrid, last season’s Champions League winners, and the next two victors will gain spots with eight more UEFA members to join them, likely based on coefficient ranking.
The revamped competition will see 32 clubs broken into eight groups of four before reaching a knockout stage. It will take place every four years, although the FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in December that no host has been confirmed.
FIFA has been accused of attempting to nestle in on the money to be paid from the club game having recognised the financial might of the Champions League.
"The details of the location still need to be discussed but it has been agreed and decided that a 32-team Club World Cup tournament will go ahead, making it like a World Cup," Infantino said.
"There will be a Club World Cup of 32 teams to be played every four years and the first edition will take place in 2025 in the summer.
"During that slot where in other years it would be the Confederations Cup, it will be slightly longer because there are 32 teams so it will last a bit longer, but they will be the best teams in the world who will all be invited to participate."
The decision to guarantee Chelsea and Real’s spot was made at a FIFA Council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda today. FIFA are also set to firm up plans around the 2026 World Cup - adding 24 games to the schedule after ditching proposals to have three-team groups.
Yet the added games are set to irk players and managers. Last week Virgil Van Dijk, who injured a hamstring in one of Liverpool's first games after the World Cup, said that the game’s decision-makers must pay closer attention to the welfare of players with no let up in a schedule that is getting “busier and busier.” He warned that players are being viewed as "robots" rather than human beings.
When the FIFA president confirmed the new Club World Cup proposal, former Liverpool defender turned Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher said that European clubs should refuse to participate.
"Like the ridiculous idea of the World Cup every two years, this is another one from Infantino,” Carragher said. "Players need rest at some point, they are getting treated like cattle. FIFA hate the Champions League & want something similar themselves. European clubs should boycott it."
