The first Women’s Club World Cup will take place in January and February of 2026, FIFA has confirmed.
A 16-team tournament will take place every four years with the first edition set to take place in 20 months’ time in a host country that has not yet been announced.
The scheduling will see the competition played during the domestic season in European leagues and between the group stage and knockout rounds of the Champions League.
North America’s National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season typically starts in March.
The decision was made at a meeting of the FIFA Council in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.
The 37-member council replaced the executive committee (ExCo) as FIFA’s main decision-making body in 2016, following the corruption scandals that tarnished the ExCo’s reputation.
A new global competition within the women’s game has been discussed for more than a decade with FIFA president Gianni Infantino saying he wanted to stage one “as soon as possible” as far back as 2019.
It remains to be seen how teams will qualify for the new Club World Cup with FIFA keen that all of the game’s regions are represented but mindful that the best teams all come from Europe, North America and South America.
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