Chelsea have been world champions for almost an entire week now, and since this new Club World Cup tournament is only held every four years (like the actual World Cup), we will get to call ourselves world champions for the next four years. Pretty cool. (The annual format lives on as the brand new “FIFA Intercontinental Cup”, first held last December.)
However, our participation in the next Club World Cup, to potentially defend our title, is not guaranteed. This runs contrary to most club competitions
at UEFA level, where the winners automatically qualify for next year’s tournament (or qualify for the higher level competition, such as the Europa League winner going into next year’s Champions League). It is however in line with the way FIFA do things. The winners of the World Cup used to get an automatic spot, but that was changed in 2000, and now every national team except the host nation’s (or nations’) has to qualify.
The Athletic do point out that FIFA have not actually adopted a “definitive” position on this issue, and have plenty of leeway built into their regulations to easily decide to change their policies either officially or unofficially (like when they granted Inter Miami a place in this year’s tournament as the “host country representative team”, a provision they invented on the spot).
But as things stand, we will have to earn our way back in — by either winning the Champions League in the next three years, or by performing at a high level consistently enough to get an at-large bid. Ironically, runners-up PSG are already qualified as the 2025 Champions League-winners.
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