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    Gianni Infantino Says FIFA Club World Cup Will Feature 32 Teams In 2025 But Jamie Carragher Calls On European Sides To Snub "Ridiculous" Event

    FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said that the Club World Cup will be a 32-team tournament when it is expanded in the summer of 2025.

    No edition of the FIFA Club World Cup has contained more than eight teams since its launch in 2000.

    FIFA had planned to expand it to a 24-team event taking place in China in 2021 but the COVID pandemic saw that proposal scrapped.

    Previous Club World Cups have taken place between December and February but it is understood that the 2025 edition would be held in June and July.

    Speaking in Doha on Friday, Infantino said: "It will be a Club World Cup of 32 teams, every four years, and the first edition will be summer of 2025.

    "They will be the best teams in the world invited to participate."

    FIFA president Gianni Infantino pictured speaking at a press conference in Qatar two days before the 2022 World Cup final

    FIFA president Gianni Infantino pictured speaking at a press conference in Qatar on Friday

    Eight of those teams will apparently come from Europe as FIFA attempts to create a competition to rival the UEFA Champions League.

    However, there is likely to be some resistance from clubs based on concerns about how scheduling even more matches could affect player fatigue.

    Premier League CEO Richard Masters has publicly spoken out against previous plans to expand the FIFA Club World Cup.

    Masters said in a statement last year: "The Premier League is committed to preventing any radical changes to the calendar that would adversely affect player welfare and threaten the competitiveness, calendar, structures and traditions of domestic football.

    "This process should also involve meaningful agreements with the leagues that provide the foundations for the game."

    Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who played in the 2005 edition of the Club World Cup, is also against FIFA's plan to expand the tournament.

    Carragher tweeted on Friday: "Like the ridiculous idea of @FIFAWorldCup every two years, this is another one from Infantino.

    "Players need rest at some point, they are getting treated like cattle.

    "FIFA hate the CL & want something similar themselves.

    "European clubs should boycott it."

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