Qatar will host the coronavirus-delayed Club World Cup, an important test occasion forward of the 2022 World Cup, in February, FIFA said on Tuesday. The virus has thrown the sporting calendar into chaos with organizers pressured to postpone flagship occasions just like the Olympics and Euro 2020, whereas different occasions have been canceled outright. The Club World Cup, which had been as a consequence of being performed in Doha in December of this yr, will as an alternative be held from February 1 to 11, 2021. The competitors see club champions from the six regional confederations and the champions of the host nation, Qatar’s Al-Duhail, introduced collectively for the annual contest.
Bayern Munich is due to participate after winning the final season’s UEFA Champions League.
“The FIFA Club World Cup 2020 will now be held from 1 to 11 February 2021, taking place in Qatar,” FIFA stated in a press release.
“FIFA and the host nation will present the required safeguards for the health and security of all concerned.”
Liverpool lifted the trophy in 2019 after beating Brazil’s Flamengo within the last.
A revamped 24-team Club World Cup, together with eight sides from Europe, was as a consequence of being performed in China in 2021 but is about to be rescheduled for a later date after Euro 2020 and the Copa America have been penciled in for subsequent June and July.
Qatar was named as the hosts of the 2019 and 2020 tournaments, which are seen as necessary checks of the Gulf nation’s readiness for 2022.
The pandemic, which started in China late last yr, has shortly marched throughout the globe, infecting greater than 55 million people and killing a minimum of 1,328,048 individuals in keeping with official sources.
“The introduction of strict return-to-play protocols has facilitated a profitable resumption of continental club championships the final of which is now scheduled to conclude by the top of January 2021,” which will decide the line-up of the February match, the FIFA assertion added.
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