The 2021 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by

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for sponsorship reasons) was the 18th 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

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-organised international club

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tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The tournament was held from 3 to 12 February 2022 in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. Defending champions

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did not qualify as they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the

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. The eventual winners of that competition,

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, won the Club World Cup for the first time, beating Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the semi-finals before requiring

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to claim a 2–1 win over Brazilian side

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in the

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Host appointment

An expanded Club World Cup in China was planned to be held in June and July 2021. However, due to fixture congestion caused by the postponement of the

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and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on football, the Tokyo Olympics,

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and

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

were postponed from mid-2020 to mid-2021. As a result, FIFA announced in March 2020 that they would postpone the expanded Club World Cup to later in 2021, 2022 or 2023, before cancelling it entirely. On 4 December 2020, the

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announced that the Club World Cup, using the previous format, would be held in late 2021 and hosted by Japan. However, on 8 September 2021, the

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dropped its commitment to host the tournament, owing to the possibility of restrictions on fan attendance due to the

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. Numerous countries expressed interest in hosting the tournament as bidding was reopened, including Brazil, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. On 20 October 2021, the

announced the United Arab Emirates as the host of the tournament, and postponed the event from late 2021 to early 2022.

Qualified teams

Notes

Venues

The matches were played at two venues in the city of

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

, both of which hosted matches at the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 ...

Match officials

Five

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s, ten

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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. One support referee was also named for the tournament. Semi-automated offside technology was tested during the tournament.

Squads

Each team named a 23-man squad (three of whom had to be goalkeepers). Injury replacements were allowed until 24 hours before the team's first match.

Matches

The draw of the tournament was held on 29 November 2021, 17:00

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(

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), at the FIFA headquarters in

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, 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). If a match was tied after normal playing time: *For elimination matches,

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 pe ...

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. All times are local,

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(

UTC+4 UTC+04:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +04:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+04:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Baku, ...

First round

Second round

----

Semi-finals

----

Match for fifth place

Match for third place

Final

Goalscorers

1 own goal * Mohammed Rabii (

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, against

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) * Zayed Sultan (

, against

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)

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.

Thiago Silva Thiago Emiliano da Silva (born 22 September 1984) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Chelsea and captains the Brazil national team. Considered one of the best defenders of his generation, he is known f ...

won the Golden Ball award, sponsored by

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, which is jointly awarded with the

Award to recognise the player of the tournament.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fifa Club World Cup 2021 2021 FIFA Club World Cup

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2021 in association football 2022 in association football 2021 Fifa Club World Cup 2021–22 in Emirati football February 2022 sports events in the United Arab Emirates Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic