Fifa moves towards ending decades of football tradition and letting league games be staged in other countries
- New policy will be attractive to the international owners of European clubs, including US investors and state-backed teams
- Football’s governing body also finally set a date to play the first Women’s Club World Cup in January and February 2026
Fifa moved on Wednesday towards ending decades of football tradition by reviewing the rules that currently block domestic league games being played in other countries.
Fans are likely to object to their teams’ home matches potentially being moved thousands of kilometres away.
The United States and Saudi Arabia are expected to be willing hosts to lure competitive games from top European countries, and Fifa recently agreed to withdraw from an ongoing court case in New York filed by promoter Relevent to challenge the policy.
The new Fifa policy will probably be attractive to the growing number of international owners of European clubs, including the wave of US investors in the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1, and state-backed teams such as Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City, Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain and Saudi-owned Newcastle.
Fifa is now creating a panel of 10-15 people representing football stakeholders to advise within months on amending the rules on so-called “out-of-territory” games. The rules were last amended in 2014.
Attempts since then to have European league games abroad, including taking Barcelona to Miami in 2019, were blocked as US promoters seek to give fans more than just preseason exhibition games involving the world’s best club teams.
Fifa directed its working group, which is yet to be appointed, to consider fairness and giving “advance notice to fans who may miss the opportunity to attend a home or away match in the home territory”.
Other factors for the Fifa panel include “respect for the recognised structure of international football” and potential disruption to fans, teams and leagues in the country hosting “out-of-territory” games.
Fifa on Wednesday also finally set a date to play the first Women’s Club World Cup tournament in January and February 2026.
Fifa, whose council met in advance of the 74th Fifa Congress in Bangkok, did not provide any further details at this stage, aside from the first edition involving 16 teams.
Barcelona and Lyon are the top-ranked European teams and have combined to win 10 Champions League titles since 2011. They will meet in the next final on May 25 in Bilbao, Spain.
A 32-team men’s Club World Cup will debut in June-July next year in the United States with teams qualifying by winning or getting consistently good results in four years of continental championships through 2024.
The inaugural men’s edition will have 12 European teams and six from South America.
Fifa has made launching a global club tournament a key part of its strategy to develop women’s football since its current president Gianni Infantino was elected in 2016.
The tournament should be held every four years, like the men’s edition. In other years, an “additional Fifa women’s club competition” was proposed to be organised, again like the men.
Fifa plans to launch an annual “Intercontinental Cup” in December featuring just the champions of the six men’s continental competitions, such as the Champions League in Europe.
