FIFA Club World Cup 2022, Morocco

[amenina]

The FIFA Council appointed the Moroccan Football Association as the host for the FIFA Club World Cup 2022™, which will take place from 1 to 11 February 2023.

https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/organis ... sive-power

An expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup™ is set to begin in June 2025 (following the postponement of the original 24-team tournament planned for 2021) and will take place every four years.

[amenina]

Participating teams (from the winners of each confederation’s club competition)
AFC: To be confirmed
CAF: Wydad Casablanca (Morocco)
CONCACAF: Seattle Sounders (USA)
CONMEBOL: Flamengo (Brazil)
OFC: Auckland City (New Zealand)
UEFA: Real Madrid (Spain)
Host: To be confirmed

[naaba]

Winner : Real Madrid (Spain).

[amenina]

Winner : Real Madrid (Spain).

We already had one upset of a team from Morocco beating a team from Spain in a World Cup. Are you sure we won’t see another?

[Forza AZ]

Host: To be confirmed

This should be Al Ahly from Egypt as losing finalist of the CAF Champions League, since it is not allowed to have 2 teams from Morocco in the tournament.

[rpo.castro]

Winner : Real Madrid (Spain).

We already had one upset of a team from Morocco beating a team from Spain in a World Cup. Are you sure we won’t see another?

I m pretty sure on Real Madrid. On European/International cups better not bet against them.
Chances of Morocco team beating Real Madrid? 0.01%
Its not like Casablanca has the quality of NT. And Real Madrid is way better then current Spanish NT starting on the manager.

[Lorric]

Winner : Real Madrid (Spain).

We already had one upset of a team from Morocco beating a team from Spain in a World Cup. Are you sure we won’t see another?

I m pretty sure on Real Madrid. On European/International cups better not bet against them.
Chances of Morocco team beating Real Madrid? 0.01%
Its not like Casablanca has the quality of NT. And Real Madrid is way better then current Spanish NT starting on the manager.

Not 0.01%. If Madrid can lose to lower league opposition in the Copa Del Rey, and Sheriff Tiraspol in Madrid, they can lose to a Moroccan team in Morocco.

[SimonB]

What will happen with the AFC place?

Will it be given to Urawa Red Diamonds as that part of the draw has been completed?

[rpo.castro]

We already had one upset of a team from Morocco beating a team from Spain in a World Cup. Are you sure we won’t see another?

I m pretty sure on Real Madrid. On European/International cups better not bet against them.
Chances of Morocco team beating Real Madrid? 0.01%
Its not like Casablanca has the quality of NT. And Real Madrid is way better then current Spanish NT starting on the manager.

Not 0.01%. If Madrid can lose to lower league opposition in the Copa Del Rey, and Sheriff Tiraspol in Madrid, they can lose to a Moroccan team in Morocco.

Yeah right because a Clubs World Cup KO is the same as a Champions league GS or a Copa del rey early stage when RM use a B or C team, with little motivation. Its more or less the same. Or not.

[amenina]

What will happen with the AFC place?

Will it be given to Urawa Red Diamonds as that part of the draw has been completed?

The two most logical choices should be:
1. Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), which won the most recently completed tournament in 2021 and played the last edition of the CWC, will once again represent AFC in this edition of the CWC. Whoever win the 2022 AFC Champions League in May 2023 will represent AFC in the next edition of the CWC.

2. Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan), which had won the East Region of the 2022 AFC Champions League, will represent AFC in this edition of the CWC. Whoever win the West Region of the 2022 AFC Champions League in late February 2023 will represent AFC in the next edition of the CWC.

Note that there will be no 2023 AFC Champions League, since the tournament is being switched to an August-to-May schedule starting from 2023-24.

[amirbachar]

What will happen with the AFC place?

Will it be given to Urawa Red Diamonds as that part of the draw has been completed?

The two most logical choices should be:
1. Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), which won the most recently completed tournament in 2021 and played the last edition of the CWC, will once again represent AFC in this edition of the CWC. Whoever win the 2022 AFC Champions League in May 2023 will represent AFC in the next edition of the CWC.

2. Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan), which had won the East Region of the 2022 AFC Champions League, will represent AFC in this edition of the CWC. Whoever win the West Region of the 2022 AFC Champions League in late February 2023 will represent AFC in the next edition of the CWC.

Note that there will be no 2023 AFC Champions League, since the tournament is being switched to an August-to-May schedule starting from 2023-24.

Option 2 sounds the fairest to me

[amenina]

What will happen with the AFC place?

Will it be given to Urawa Red Diamonds as that part of the draw has been completed?

The two most logical choices should be:
1. Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), which won the most recently completed tournament in 2021 and played the last edition of the CWC, will once again represent AFC in this edition of the CWC. Whoever win the 2022 AFC Champions League in May 2023 will represent AFC in the next edition of the CWC.

2. Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan), which had won the East Region of the 2022 AFC Champions League, will represent AFC in this edition of the CWC. Whoever win the West Region of the 2022 AFC Champions League in late February 2023 will represent AFC in the next edition of the CWC.

Note that there will be no 2023 AFC Champions League, since the tournament is being switched to an August-to-May schedule starting from 2023-24.

Option 2 sounds the fairest to me

They went with option 1. Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia) will be the AFC representative.

https://www.the-afc.com/en/national/afc ... _2023.html

Further, in view of the possibility that the AFC Champions League 2022™ would only be completed after the FIFA Club World Cup 2022, the Competitions Committee agreed to nominate Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal SFC, the reigning Asian club champions as the AFC’s representative for the upcoming edition of the world club showpiece.

[naaba]

What the hell happened in the AFC Champions League ?

The East bracket of the competition played KO-16, QF, SF all within 1 week. In August 2022 Urawa Red Diamonds was finalist and won't play final until 29 April 2023.

I feel like an Arab lobby pushed to have 3 representatives in the World Cup.

[amenina]

What the hell happened in the AFC Champions League ?

The East bracket of the competition played KO-16, QF, SF all within 1 week. In August 2022 Urawa Red Diamonds was finalist and won't play final until 29 April 2023.

I feel like an Arab lobby pushed to have 3 representatives in the World Cup.

Schedule-wise, it was difficult for the West bracket to be played before the World Cup. August/September were too hot, and October already close to the World Cup, so the Iran/Saudi players would not want to risk injuries. And Qatar practically called up the whole national team squad away from the clubs for a whole two months, so the Qatari clubs would not be in full strength.

And since the next edition of the AFC Champions League does not start until August 2023, putting the remainder of the matches in 2023 does not disrupt next season.

But of course, with the 2022 season spread over one and a half years, many of the players which started the campaign already had left the clubs. When Urawa play in the final in April/May 2023, they will be fielding new players who have not even played any of the 2022 ACL matches before.

As for AFC's decision to nominate Al-Hilal for the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup, it kind of makes sense since they are the reigning champions. We are not talking about an unfinished league where we can nominate whoever is leading the table at this moment. This is a cup tournament so Urawa currently being the "furthest" team does not make them better than any of the teams remaining in the West bracket.

On the other hand, AFC is currently led by somebody from the Arab world. And a lot of the decisions made by them, for example, awarding the 2023 AFC Asian Cup to Qatar instead of South Korea, while arguably "fair", do lean towards the Arab countries.

And from FIFA's perspective, having three Arab clubs playing in a tournament hosted in the Arab world is beneficial. But we are just speculating somewhat, maybe AFC would still nominate the 2021 champions if say a team from East Asia won it.

[Jackson Harrison]

No fifth place play off or extra time in the final if it's played before third place match weirdly https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/cc55b7738 ... p-2022.pdf