Liverpool face mid-season Qatar trip as Club World Cup hosts confirmed

Jamie Smith

Liverpool face mid-season Qatar trip as Club World Cup hosts confirmed image

Liverpool will travel to Qatar in mid-season as FIFA has confirmed the country will host the Club World Cup in both 2019 and 2020 before the competition undergoes a substantial revamp.

The Champions League winners will be among the teams competing for this year's title, which is expected to take place in December.

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The two tournaments will act as warm-up events for the 2022 World Cup, which will also be held in Qatar.

Those finals are being played in November and December in order to avoid the extreme summer temperatures in the Gulf state.

FIFA's next council meeting will include a discussion about potential hosts for the 2021 Club World Cup, when the tournament is to be expanded to 24 teams as part of a major remodelling.

It was initially thought that the competition would not take place in 2019 and 2020 as the changes were made, but that decision has been reversed.

The Reds have earned the chance to participate in the tournament by beating Tottenham 2-0 in the Champions League final in Madrid on June 1, courtesy of a Mohamed Salah penalty and a Divock Origi strike.

They progressed to the final against all odds when they beat Barcelona 4-0 on a magical night at Anfield after suffering a 3-0 reverse at Camp Nou - the biggest comeback ever at that stage of the tournament.

Liverpool play in the Club World Cup for the first time since 2005 - their debut in the competition - when they lost 1-0 to Brazilian outfit Sao Paulo in the final, qualifying after their historic comeback and penalty shoot-out victory over AC Milan in Istanbul.

The last English club to take part in the tournament - Chelsea - also lost by a 1-0 scoreline to Brazilian opposition in Corinthians, with Manchester United the only Premier League outfit to have claimed the title.

Real Madrid have won the past three Club World Cups and no team outside Spain has lifted the trophy since Bayern Munich in 2013.

Jamie Smith