LAUSANNE.- The first Women’s World Cup of football clubs “should group 16 teams” between January and February 2026 in a still unknown host country, the FIFA Council decided on Wednesday during its 74th Congress in Bangkok.
This new women’s competition will be held every four years, like the men’s World Cup, expanded to 32 teams and whose first edition is scheduled for June 15 to July 13, 2025 in USA.
“More details will be published soon,” continues FIFA, which had decided to create the strategic principles of this tournament in December 2022, in line with its long-standing strategy to invest more in club football.
Incidentally, “to facilitate the continued development of women’s clubs around the world and in response to the requests of the confederations”, “it was proposed that another women’s club competition be organized” from 2027 in the years without a Club World Cup , adds the institution.
The FIFA executive also adopted the international women’s calendar for the period 2026-2029, reducing international windows from six to five to favor “player rest”, limit travel and have less impact on the championships.
Controversy with FIFA:
The overloaded men’s international calendar caused new tensions this week, when the global players’ union FIFPro and the World Association of Professional Leagues asked FIFA to review the 2025 Club World Cup calendar under threat of legal action.
“We reject any suggestion or inference that FIFA ‘imposes’ the International Match Calendar (IMC) on the football community without adequate consultation, or to adapt it to its own ‘business strategy’,” the FIFA secretary general responded then. FIFA, the Swede Mattias Grafstorm, formally appointed on Wednesday by the Council after having acted as interim since October 2023.
Source: AFP
