Soccer Football - Copa Libertadores - Final - Boca Juniors v Fluminense - Estadio Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - November 4, 2023 FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the match REUTERS/Sergio Moraes/File Photo
(Reuters) -FIFA's revamped Club World Cup planned for 2025 and set to feature 32 teams will be played from June 15 to July 13, while a new Intercontinental Cup will be played annually from next year, Gianni Infantino, the head of world soccer's governing body, said on Sunday.
The announcement drew criticism from the global players' union FIFPro as well as the World Leagues Forum (WLF), an organisation representing 44 major professional leagues that is chaired by Premier League chief Richard Masters.
FIFA had announced an expanded Club World Cup earlier this year and unanimously voted to appoint the United States as hosts for the first edition of the event.
The FIFA council, meeting in Jeddah to ratify the dates for the Club World Cup, also confirmed that next year's Intercontinental Cup would have the UEFA Champions League winner playing a team that came through intercontinental playoffs.
"The tournament will feature all current confederation premier club competition champions," FIFA President Infantino said.
"(It) concludes with a final at a neutral venue between the UEFA Champions League winners and the winners of an intercontinental playoff between clubs from the other confederations."
The Intercontinental Cup playoffs will be played on Dec. 14, 2024, followed by the final on Dec. 18.
The 2025 edition of the Club World Cup, which will be held every four years, will have eight groups of four with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout stages -- the same format as the World Cup.
The current version of the FIFA Club World Cup -- an annual competition with seven teams -- will be discontinued after the tournament now being hosted by Saudi Arabia.
The existing format sees the European and South American champions enter the tournament in the semi-final phase while champions from the other confederations come through earlier rounds.
WORLD LEAGUES UNHAPPY
The dates of the Club World Cup, however, give European teams who qualify little time to rest between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.
The European season traditionally ends in May with the Champions League final taking place by the first week of June, while the new season kicks off in August.
WLF chair Masters said they were unhappy that they had been overlooked in FIFA's decision-making process.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Masters told Infantino that the expansion of FIFA's competitions in recent years was detrimental to other soccer stakeholders and accused the global body of prioritising their own interests.
Masters also said the June-July schedule would impact player availability for national leagues at the start of the season in August while he also raised questions about player workload and health risks.
FIFPro said the decision to add a bigger Club World Cup at the end of the European season demonstrated "a lack of consideration" for players' physical and mental health, and disregarded their personal and family lives.
"The expanded competition will undercut the rest and recovery time of these players at the end of the 2024-25 season, and further disrupt national employment markets by changing the balance between national and international competitions," FIFPro said in a statement.
"Players will have to perform at the end of an 11-month season with little prospect of getting enough rest before the following season starts.
"The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game is the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance, and risks to career longevity," it added.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Clare Fallon)
