Club World Cup in Qatar moved to February

Joe Wright

Club World Cup in Qatar moved to February image

FIFA has confirmed the Club World Cup will take place in February 2021, rather than December this year.

The annual event, which is being staged in Qatar, is traditionally held at the end of the year and had been scheduled to begin next month.

However, FIFA said that is not feasible because of "the disruptive effect of the pandemic on the confederations' continental club championships that serve as a pathway for the event".

It will instead be staged from February 1 to February 11.

European champions Bayern Munich and Al-Duhail, the 2019-20 Qatar Stars League winners, are the only confirmed participants so far.

The 2021 tournament will be the last before the expanded competition, which is due to replace the Confederations Cup on the football calendar, is first held in China.

FIFA also confirmed the 2020 Under-20 and Under-17 Women's World Cups have been cancelled after stakeholders raised concerns about staging the tournaments.

The events had been postponed until early next year because of the impact of the pandemic.

FIFA said the 2020 hosts – Costa Rica for the Under-20 tournament and India for the Under-17s – will now have hosting rights moved to the 2022 competitions.

Joe Wright

Joe Wright Photo

Joe is a Senior Editor at Sporting News. He was previously a sub editor and writer for Goal.com before spending six years as part of the Stats Perform editorial news service, covering major global sports including football, tennis, boxing, NBA, rugby union and athletics. Joe has reported live on some of the biggest games in football, including two UEFA Champions League finals, Euro 2016, the Confederations Cup 2017 and the 2018 World Cup final at the end of a month in Russia.