The FIFA Women's Club World Cup is an international women's
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
competition that is proposed by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. , plans for the competition have been considered by FIFA but not approved.
INAC Kobe Leonessa
INAC Kobe is a Japanese football club from Kobe, founded in 2001. INAC stands for International Athletic Club while Leonessa means Lioness in Italian.
In 2006 INAC Leonessa was promoted to the Nadeshiko.League, where it has played since 2020 ...
(Japan) and
NTV Beleza
is a women's football team which plays in Japan's WE League.
History
The club was founded as named ''Yomiuri SC Ladies Beleza'' as women's club of Yomiuri SC (currently ''Tokyo Verdy'') by Yomiuri Shimbun in 1981.International women’s club championship set for November Japan Football Association, Oct 18, 2012, viewed Nov. 23, 2012 It was also envisaged that FIFA would ultimately endorse the tournament as a female equivalent of the FIFA Club World Cup.
In October 2013, FIFA's executive committee heard a proposal from their Women's Football Task Force to explore the idea of an official FIFA Women's Club World Cup.FIFA ExCo exploring idea of Women’s Club World Cup Equalizer Soccer, Oct 4, 2013, viewed Nov 30, 2013 The board of the Brazilian club São José, winner of the
2013 Copa Libertadores Femenina
The 2013 Copa Libertadores Femenina was the fifth edition of the Copa Libertadores Femenina, CONMEBOL's premier annual international women's football club tournament. It was held in Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. The competition was supposed to start o ...
, went so far as to say that FIFA had approved the holding of an interclub tournament between the South American champions and
2012–13 UEFA Women's Champions League
The 2012–13 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 12th edition of the European women's championship for football clubs. The final was held at Stamford Bridge, London, England on 23 May 2013.
Team allocation and distribution
The national ch ...
champions
VfL Wolfsburg
Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...
during 2014. However, the proposed match between the two continental champions never progressed beyond the planning stages.
In 2015 the FIFA Women's Football Task Force again proposed the creation of the FIFA Women's Club World Cup. The Task Force also proposed an increase in teams and in development of competitions at confederation level in relation to the FIFA Women's Club World Cup.
A friendly played between Arsenal L.F.C. (
FA Women's Cup
The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...
holders) and
Seattle Reign FC
OL Reign is an American professional women's soccer team based in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2012 as Seattle Reign FC, it was one of eight inaugural members of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). In 2020, ...
(
NWSL Shield
The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...
holders) on 26 May 2016 (finished with a draw of 1–1) at Memorial Stadium in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
was described as "a stepping stone to the grand idea of a FIFA Women's Club World Cup."
In 2017, Chief Women's Football Officer
Sarai Bareman
Sarai Bareman is a Samoan New Zealand–born former footballer of Samoan and Dutch descent who represented Samoa. She is the current Chief Women's Football Officer for FIFA. She attended Massey High School in West Auckland, New Zealand.
Caree ...
mentioned the possibility of a Women's Club World Cup, in saying that "we have to be very careful about how we introduce it, when we introduce it and it has to include all regions. As you well know, not all regions are at the same development level but there’s an amazing opportunity that exists, but we have to be very strategic and careful about how we do it."
During the closing press conference for the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...
, president
Gianni Infantino
Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino (; born 23 March 1970) is a Swiss football administrator with Italian citizenship and the current president of FIFA. He was elected President of FIFA during the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016. H ...
outlined a proposal for the creation of the tournament "starting as soon as possible" as a step towards the future development of women's football. In December 2022, FIFA announced plans to establish a Women's Club World Cup but that the women's football calendar would remain unchanged until 2025.