The Club World Cup will feature five new rule changes as well as a brand new format when it begins next week.
The new tournament kicks off in the United States on Sunday June 15, with Al Ahly taking on Inter Miami in the tournament’s opening match.
In total, 32 teams will take part from all over the globe, including Manchester City and Chelsea from England as well as the likes of Real Madrid, Juventus and Bayern Munich.
Previous iterations of the competition have included just seven teams, with Manchester City winning the last tournament in 2023.
But this year’s competition has an enormous prize fund of £777m ($1bn), to be split among the teams.
The Club World Cup has typically been viewed as a minor affair for European clubs and fans, but FIFA wants it to be ‘the football event of the year’.
The Club World Cup will feature five new rule changes as well as a new tournament format
Man City won the last Club World Cup in 2023. The previous iteration had just seven teams
Among the most significant of the five innovations is that referees will now wear body cameras
As well as the new format, the competition is also going to feature a host of ‘trailblazing’ rule changes, which FIFA claim will ‘improve football.
The most significant innovation is that referees will wear body cameras, allowing fans to see closer into their decision making process.
The footage will used during live match broadcasts on DAZN, who agreed a $1billion (£787m) deal with FIFA for rights to the tournament.
The new camera angle will be trialled to see if it can improve the viewing experience for fans at home, while FIFA will use the experiment to create guidelines for its possible use in other competitions.
Fans at the game will finally be able to watch footage from the VAR monitor inside the stadium, and it will be displayed live on giant screens to ‘enhance transparency’.
Advanced semi-automated offside technology will also be used as referees seek to make quicker decisions throughout the match.
The Club World Cup will also see an increased use of artificial intelligence-driven data, while substitution tablets will be used and will replace the traditional manual process
Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, said that the referees taking part in the tournament will be ‘making history’.
But Liam Delap has decided to snub the U21 Euros in favour of comepting at the competition
The new Club World Cup format has received criticism from players and FIFA is currently facing legal action surrounding the tournament’s scheduling.
Players’ union Fifpro says the footballing calendar is too busy and ‘risks player safety and wellbeing’.
Manuel Akanji, currently in the US on Switzerland duty for their upcoming pair of friendlies, has candidly spoken out against the fixture congestion.
The Manchester City defender said: ‘I have been a strong critic of this competition for some time now. We players would love to have some holidays, and some time for our bodies to rest.’
My City teammates are not exactly overjoyed about the tournament either. But it’s now right in our faces, and there is nothing we can do about it.
‘If we take part, then of course we want to win it. But if we reach the final, then the time period for us to recover ahead of the new season will become even shorter.’
