The FIFA Club World Cup, formerly known as the FIFA Club World Championship, is a football competition contested between the champion clubs from all six continental confederations, although, since 2007, the champions of Oceania must play a qualifying play-off against the champion club of the host country.
The first competition took place in Brazil in January 2000. It was intended by FIFA to be a replacement for the Intercontinental Cup (also known as the Toyota Cup), which was contested annually in Tokyo, Japan by the champions of Europe via the Champions League and South America via the Copa Libertadores.
The second competition was penciled in for Spain in 2001, to feature 12 teams. This was canceled owing to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL. It was then intended to hold the event in 2003, but this also failed to happen. FIFA eventually agreed terms with the Toyota Cup to merge the two competitions, with the first installment of the relaunched Club World Championship held in Japan between December 11 and December 18, 2005.
The competition was then renamed as FIFA Club World Cup since 2006 event, which held annually in Japan until 2008. The 2009 and 2010 events will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.
In February 2008 a FIFA Club World Cup Champions Badge was introduced, featuring an image of the trophy, which the reigning champion is entitled to display on its kit until the final of the next championship. Initially, all four previous champions were allowed to wear the badge until the 2008 final[1], where Manchester United gained the sole right to wear the badge by winning the trophy. However Manchester United are barred from wearing the badge in domestic competition.
The fifth-place match, dropped in 2007, was reintroduced for the 2008 competition. The reintroduction of the match for fifth place also prompted an increase in prize money by US$500,000 to a total of US$16.5 million. The winners took away $5 million, second-placed team received $4 million, the third-placed team $2.5 million, the fourth-placed team $2 million, the fifth-placed team $1.5 million, the sixth-placed team $1 million and the seventh-placed team received $500,000.[2]
The team with the most appearances in the competition is Al-Ahly of Egypt, which has been involved in three out of the five tournaments held - 2005, 2006 and 2008.
[edit] Champions
[edit] Honours
[edit] Goalscorers
- 3 goals
- 2 goals
| - 1 goal
| - 1 goal
- Own goal
- 1 own goal
- 2 own goals
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[edit] Performances by team
[edit] Performances by country
[edit] Performances by confederation
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| FIFA Club World Cup | | | Seasons | | | | Finals | | |
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| International Football Championships | | | | | | | | | * Defunct | |
