The 2020 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 presented by
Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud, also known as Aliyun (), is a cloud computing company, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Alibaba Cloud provides cloud computing services to online businesses and Alibaba's own e-commerce ecosystem. Its international operations are re ...
for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th edition of the
FIFA Club World Cup
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
, a
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
-organised international club
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The tournament was hosted by
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
.
The event was postponed to 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, as the AFC, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF champions would not have been decided in time for the tournament. Originally to be held in December 2020, on 17 November of the same year FIFA announced that the competition would be played between 1 and 11 February 2021.
Originally seven teams were to compete in the tournament. However,
OFC's representatives
Auckland City
Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...
withdrew due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related quarantine measures required by the
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
authorities. As a result, only six teams competed, and the first round match, originally scheduled on 1 February 2021, was awarded as a 3–0 win to their first round opponents, host
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
's representatives
Al-Duhail, who advanced automatically to the second round on 4 February 2021.
Defending champions
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
did not qualify as they were eliminated in the round of 16 of the
2019–20 UEFA Champions League
The 2019–20 UEFA Champions League was the 65th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 28th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
Bayern Munich d ...
. The eventual winners of that competition,
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
, went on to win the Club World Cup for a second time, beating
Al Ahly
AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media
* Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera
* Al (''Fullmetal ...
2–0 in the semi-finals, before a 1–0 win over
UANL in the final
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
. In winning the title, Bayern Munich became only the second club in European football history (after
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
in 2009) to win all six competitions they entered (commonly known as a
sextuple
In mathematics, a tuple is a finite ordered list (sequence) of elements. An -tuple is a sequence (or ordered list) of elements, where is a non-negative integer. There is only one 0-tuple, referred to as ''the empty tuple''. An -tuple is defi ...
) in a single calendar year.
Host appointment
With proposals for an
expanded Club World Cup, FIFA delayed the announcement of a host. On 28 May 2019, FIFA announced that the 2019 and 2020 tournament host would be appointed at the
FIFA Council
The FIFA Council (formerly the FIFA Executive Committee) is an institution of FIFA (the governing body of association football, futsal and beach football). It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of FIFA Congress. ...
meeting in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France, on 3 June 2019.
Qatar was appointed as the host for the 2019 and 2020 tournaments on 3 June 2019, serving as test events ahead of their hosting of the
2022 FIFA World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...
. The tournament retained its original format ahead of the
scheduled revamp.
Qualified teams
Notes
Venues
The matches were played in the city of
Al Rayyan
Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...
, at the
Ahmad bin Ali Stadium
Ahmad bin Ali Stadium (), popularly known as the Al-Rayyan Stadium, is an association football stadium located in the district of Rawdat Al Jahhaniya, Qatar, around northwest from the centre of Al Rayyan. It is currently used mostly for footbal ...
and
Education City Stadium
Education City Stadium () is a football stadium which is located in Al Rayyan, Qatar, and was built as a venue in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar. The stadium is located within several university campuses at the Qatar Foundation' ...
; both 40,000-seat venues which would later host matches at the
2022 FIFA World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...
.
Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar
The COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have reached Qatar on 27 February 2020.
As of the 12 ...
, attendance was limited to only 30% of the stadiums' seating capacity. A third stadium in Al Rayyan,
Khalifa International Stadium
Khalifa International Stadium (, , ) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Al Rayyan, Qatar, around west from the centre of Doha. Its ground comprises a running track and a grass pitch. Opened in 1976, the stadium was named after then-Emir of ...
, would originally have hosted two matches, but following the withdrawal of
Auckland City
Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...
and the subsequent revision of the match schedule, it was not used for the tournament.
Match officials
Seven
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
s, twelve
assistant referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...
s, and seven
video assistant referee
The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee.
The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...
s were appointed for the tournament. Brazilian referee
Edina Alves Batista
Edina Alves Batista (born 10 January 1980) is a Brazilian association football referee.
Career
She was an official at two games in April 2018 at the 2018 Copa América Femenina held in Chile.
She officiated several matches at the 2019 FIFA ...
became the first woman to officiate at a senior FIFA men's tournament.
Squads
Each team had to name a 23-man squad (three of whom must be goalkeepers). Injury replacements were allowed until 24 hours before the team's first match.
Matches
The match schedule was announced on 23 December 2020,
with a revised schedule with change of venues announced on 18 January 2021.
The draw of the tournament was held on 19 January 2021, 16:00
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast Ente ...
(
UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
), at the FIFA headquarters in
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
, Switzerland, to decide the matchups of the second round (between the first round winner and teams from AFC, CAF and CONCACAF), and the opponents of the two second round winners in the semi-finals (against teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA). At the time of the draw, the identity of the CONMEBOL team was not known.
If a match was tied after normal playing time:
*For elimination matches,
extra time
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...
was played. If still tied after extra time, a
penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...
was held to determine the winner.
*For the matches for fifth place and third place, no extra time was played, and a penalty shoot-out was held to determine the winner.
First round
Second round
----
Match for fifth place
Semi-finals
----
Match for third place
Final
Goalscorers
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.
Robert Lewandowski
Robert Lewandowski (; born 21 August 1988) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Barcelona and captains the Poland national team. Recognised for his positioning, technique and finishing, Lewandowski is co ...
of
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
won the
Golden Ball award, sponsored by
Adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...
, which is jointly awarded with the
Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud, also known as Aliyun (), is a cloud computing company, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Alibaba Cloud provides cloud computing services to online businesses and Alibaba's own e-commerce ecosystem. Its international operations are re ...
Award to recognise the player of the tournament.
FIFA also named a
man of the match
In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...
for the best player in each game at the tournament.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fifa Club World Cup 2020
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
2020 in association football
2021 in association football
2020 Fifa Club World Cup
2020–21 in Qatari football
February 2021 sports events in Asia
Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Sport in Al Rayyan