By: Minna Ibrahim
Credits to FIFA.com
In the 20th edition of the FIFA Clubs World Cup, Saudi Arabia is preparing to embrace this major event taking place between the 12th and 22nd of December 2023. This tournament will continue as a seven-team compe
tition, featuring teams from different continents worldwide, and it's scheduled to increase the number of participating teams to 32 in the 2025 edition.
The tournament's current structure consists of seven teams competing for the championship in venues across the host nation over a roughly two-week duration, engaging in a straight knockout tournament.
The participants include the winners of the following championships: the AFC Champions League (representing Asia), CAF Champions League (representing Africa), CONCACAF Champions Cup (representing North, Central America, and the Caribbean), CONMEBOL Libertadores (representing South America), OFC Champions League (representing Oceania), and UEFA Champions League (representing Europe), as well as the national champions of the host nation.
For this year, the participants are as follows:
AFC Champions League Champions: Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan)
CAF Champions League Champions: Al Ahly (Egypt)
Credits to CAF.com
CONCACAF Champions: León (Mexico)
CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores: (the final will take place on 4th November).
OFC Champions League: Auckland City (New Zealand)
UEFA Champions League Champions: Manchester City (England).
Credits to The National
National champions of the host nation: Al-Ittihad (Saudi Arabia).
Draw Results:
The draw took place on 5th September, and the results were as follows:
First Round:
M1-12th December: Al Ittihad KC X Auckland City FC
Second Round:
M2-15th December: Al Ahly FC X Winner of M1
M3-15th December: Club León X Urawa Reds
Round 3| Semi Finals:
M4-18th December: CONMEBOL Representative X Winner of M2
M5-19th December: Winner of M3 X Manchester City
It's worth noting that the Final and the third-place playoff will take place on 22nd December.
Credits to FIFA.com
In the last version of the tournament, held in 2022 in Morocco, both Al Ahly and Auckland City also participated. In that edition, Real Madrid, the UEFA Champions League champion, was crowned as the overall champions, with their attacker "Vinicius Junior" winning the Golden Ball award. Al-Hilal finished as the runners-up, and Al-Ahly secured third place after defeating the USA's Seattle Sounders.
Credits to FIFA.com
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