The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018 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 15th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The tournament was hosted by 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 t ...

from 12 to 22 December 2018. Real Madrid were the defending champions, having won the previous two editions, and qualified for the 2018 edition as well. They successfully defended their title (their third consecutive) after defeating

Al-Ain Al Ain ( ar, ٱلْعَيْن, , ) is a city in the western side of Tuwwam region and the seat of the administrative division of its namesake, Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is bordered to the east by the Omani ...

4–1 in the

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. With the win, they broke the tie with their club rivals

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to become the outright record winners of the competition.

Host bids

The application process for the 2017–2018 as well as the 2015–2016 editions, i.e. two hosts, each hosting two years, began in February 2014. Member associations interested in hosting must submit a declaration of interest by 30 March 2014, and provide the complete set of bidding documents by 25 August 2014. The

FIFA Executive Committee 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. ...

was to select the hosts at their meeting in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

in December 2014, but the final decision was delayed until the FIFA Executive Committee meetings on 19–20 March 2015. The following countries expressed an interest in bidding to host the tournament: * * * The United Arab Emirates was officially announced as hosts of the

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and 2018 tournaments on 21 March 2015.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament. ;Notes

Venues

The two venues were the

Zayed Sports City Stadium Zayed Sports City Stadium ( ar, ستاد مدينة زايد الرياضية) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The largest stadium in the UAE with 45,000 seats, it has iconic status and ...

in Abu Dhabi and the

Hazza bin Zayed Stadium The Hazza bin Zayed Stadium ( ar, اِسْتَاد هَزَّاع بِن زَايِد, Istād Hazzāʿ Bin Zāyid) is a multi-purpose stadium, located in the City of Al Ain, Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is the home stadium of Al ...

in Al Ain.

Match officials

A total of six referees, twelve assistant referees, and six

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. FIFA announced on 22 November 2018 that the trio of referees and assistant referees from CAF were changed.

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 draw of the tournament was held on 4 September 2018, 10:00

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(

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

), at the FIFA Headquarters in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

, 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 (teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA). At the time of the draw, the identity of the teams from AFC, CAF and CONMEBOL were not known. If a match was tied after normal playing time: *For elimination matches, extra time would be 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 ...

would be held to determine the winner. *For the matches for fifth place and third place, no extra time would be played, and a penalty shoot-out would be 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

----

Match for fifth place

Semi-finals

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Match for third place

Final

Goalscorers

1 own goal * Léo Silva ( Kashima Antlers, against Guadalajara) * Yahya Nader (

, against Real Madrid)

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion 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.

References

External links

FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018
FIFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fifa Club World Cup 2018

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2018 in association football

2018–19 in Emirati football December 2018 sports events in Asia Sport in Al Ain Sports competitions in Abu Dhabi