FIFA president Gianni Infantino today confirmed the new 32-team Club World Cup will first be held in 2025 - then every four years after that.
The tournament announcement was the major story of a FIFA Council meeting discussing international match calendars and upcoming competitions.
Infantino revealed the 32-team competition will be launched in June 2025 and feature the top teams from around the world.
There had been plans for a 24-team version of the revamped Club World Cup to take place in 2020 but it was scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, however, the tournament is back on the table with FIFA set to introduce the new competition in three years' time. The tournament will be held in the summer months.
Celtic and Rangers will of course be aware of the news emerging this morning but it looks like they won't feature in the competition - at least currently.
The tournament will see clubs from all regions compete - and with only 32 slots available it seems unlikely either Glasgow club would qualify on current standings.
It's unclear how entry would be decided for the competition - but Rangers and Celtic don't feature prominently in the top spots in current UEFA rankings.
Michael Beale's side are currently ranked 31 in the UEFA club coefficients - but even that would appear unlikely to be close to enough to take a spot in the Club World Cup with other continents to feature in the top 32 team selection.
Similarly, Celtic look to be too far down the club rankings in 56th position according to UEFA.
Infantino said this morning that "all of the details will be developed in due course".
Making the major announcement, the FIFA president said: “There will be a Club World Cup with 32 teams to be played every four years. The first edition will take place in 2025 in the summer.
“During that slot where in the past we used to have the Confederations Cup and it will be slightly longer because obviously there are 32 teams.
“But they will be the best teams in the world. They will be invited to participate.
“But all of the details will be developed in due course, and we’ll decide where it will take place as well over the next few weeks or months in consultation with all of the stakeholders.
“FIFA Council has taken the decision now as a matter of principle to hold that Club World Cup.
“But don’t forget we were the only football organisation in the world, I think anyway, at the international level not to have organised the competition during the pandemic.
“Everyone else postponed their competitions, then shorten them and played them and we had a Club World Cup planned in 2020 with 24 teams. That was cancelled. It wasn’t replaced or postponed.
“We did that because we wanted to allow for the Copa America, the Euros and we wanted to protect the health and wellbeing of players and not overburden the calendar.”
