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2021 FIFA Club World Cup

FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud كأس العالم للأندية لكرة القدم الإمارات العربية المتحدة 2021
Tournament details
Host country	United Arab Emirates
Dates	3–12 February 2022
Teams	7 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Chelsea (1st title)
Runners-up	Palmeiras
Third place	Al Ahly
Fourth place	Al-Hilal
Tournament statistics
Matches played	8
Goals scored	27 (3.38 per match)
Attendance	100,752 (12,594 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) Raphael Veiga (Palmeiras) Yasser Ibrahim (Al Ahly) Abdoulay Diaby (Al-Jazira) 2 goals each
Best player(s)	Thiago Silva (Chelsea)
Fair play award	Chelsea
← 2020 2022 →

The 2021 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 18th 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 held from 3 to 12 February 2022 in the United Arab Emirates.

Defending champions Bayern Munich did not qualify as they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League. The eventual winners of that competition, Chelsea, won the Club World Cup for the first time, beating Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the semi-finals before requiring extra time to claim a 2–1 win over Brazilian side Palmeiras in the final.

Host appointment

An expanded Club World Cup in China was planned to be held in June and July 2021. However, due to fixture congestion caused by the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on football, the Tokyo Olympics, UEFA European Championship and Copa América were postponed from mid-2020 to mid-2021. As a result, FIFA announced in March 2020 that they would postpone the expanded Club World Cup to later in 2021, 2022 or 2023, before cancelling it entirely.

On 4 December 2020, the FIFA Council announced that the Club World Cup, using the previous format, would be held in late 2021 and hosted by Japan. However, on 8 September 2021, the Japan Football Association dropped its commitment to host the tournament, owing to the possibility of restrictions on fan attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Numerous countries expressed interest in hosting the tournament as bidding was reopened, including Brazil, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. On 20 October 2021, the FIFA Council named the United Arab Emirates as the host of the tournament, and postponed the event from late 2021 to early 2022.

Qualified teams

Team	Confederation	Qualification	Qualified date	Participation
Entering in the semi-finals
Palmeiras	CONMEBOL	Winners of the 2021 Copa Libertadores	27 November 2021	2nd (Previous: 2020)
Chelsea	UEFA	Winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League	29 May 2021	2nd (Previous: 2012)
Entering in the second round
Al-Hilal	AFC	Winners of the 2021 AFC Champions League	23 November 2021	2nd (Previous: 2019)
Al Ahly	CAF	Winners of the 2020–21 CAF Champions League	17 July 2021	7th (Previous: 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020)
Monterrey	CONCACAF	Winners of the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League	28 October 2021	5th (Previous: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2019)
Entering in the first round
AS Pirae	OFC	Nominated by OFC	31 December 2021	1st
Al-Jazira	AFC (host)	Winners of the 2020–21 UAE Pro League	20 October 2021	2nd (Previous: 2017)

Notes

1. On 4 June 2021, the OFC announced that the 2021 OFC Champions League had been cancelled due to border closures throughout the Pacific caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and no champions would be awarded. The OFC representative at the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, which would have originally been the winners of the 2021 OFC Champions League, was confirmed to be Auckland City by the OFC on 3 August 2021. The team was chosen by the OFC Executive Committee based on sporting merit principles, which used an overall ranking which took into consideration the final placing of each OFC Champions League between 2016 and 2020, and applied to the clubs nominated by their member association to qualify for the 2021 OFC Champions League. On 31 December 2021, Auckland City withdrew from the competition due to delayed reopening of the borders in New Zealand related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reintroduction of the mandatory managed isolation and quarantine system upon returning to the country. As a result, AS Pirae were nominated as the OFC's representative in their place.
2. Al-Jazira won the 2020–21 UAE Pro League on 11 May 2021, and on 16 October 2021 Al-Wahda became the last team from the United Arab Emirates to be eliminated from the 2021 AFC Champions League. However, Al-Jazira's participation was not confirmed until the United Arab Emirates were appointed as tournament hosts on 20 October 2021.

Venues

The matches were played at two venues in the city of Abu Dhabi, both of which hosted matches at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

Abu Dhabi		Abu Dhabiclass=notpageimage| Location of the host city of the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup.
Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium	Al Nahyan Stadium
Capacity: 37,500	Capacity: 15,000

Match officials

Five referees, ten assistant referees, and seven video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.

Confederation	Referees	Assistant referees	Video assistant referees
AFC	Chris Beath	Anton Shchetinin Ashley Beecham	Ammar Al-Jeneibi
CAF	Mustapha Ghorbal	Mokrane Gourari Abdelhak Etchiali
CONCACAF	César Ramos	Alberto Morin Miguel Hernández	Drew Fischer
CONMEBOL	Fernando Rapallini	Juan Pablo Belatti Diego Bonfá	Nicolás Gallo Mauro Vigliano
UEFA	Clément Turpin	Nicolas Danos Cyril Gringore	Willy Delajod Massimiliano Irrati Pol van Boekel

One support referee was also named for the tournament.

Confederation	Support referee
OFC	David Yareboinen

Semi-automated offside technology was tested during the tournament.

Squads

Each team named a 23-man squad (three of whom had to be goalkeepers). Injury replacements were allowed until 24 hours before the team's first match.

Matches

The draw of the tournament was held on 29 November 2021, 17:00 CET (UTC+1), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland, 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 (against teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA).

If a match was tied after normal playing time:

• For elimination matches, extra time was played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was held to determine the winner.
• For the matches for fifth place and third place, no extra time was played, and a penalty shoot-out was held to determine the winner.

First round

Second round

Semi-finals

Final

6 February – Abu Dhabi (MBZ)

3 February – Abu Dhabi (MBZ)

Al-Hilal

6

9 February – Abu Dhabi (MBZ)

Al-Jazira

4

Al-Jazira

1

Al-Hilal

0

AS Pirae

1

Chelsea

1

12 February – Abu Dhabi (MBZ)

Chelsea (a.e.t.)

2

8 February – Abu Dhabi (ANS)

Palmeiras

1

5 February – Abu Dhabi (ANS)

Palmeiras

2

Al Ahly

1

Al Ahly

0

Monterrey

0

Match for fifth place

Match for third place

9 February – Abu Dhabi (ANS)

12 February – Abu Dhabi (ANS)

Monterrey

3

Al-Hilal

0

Al-Jazira

1

Al Ahly

4

All times are local, GST (UTC+4).

First round

Al-Jazira	4–1	AS Pirae
Al-Ameri 5' A. Al-Attas 25' Kosanović 41' Diaby 63'	Report	Rabii 48' (o.g.)

Second round

Al Ahly	1–0	Monterrey
Hany 53'	Report

Al-Hilal	6–1	Al-Jazira
Ighalo 36' Pereira 40' Kanno 57' Al-Dawsari 77' Marega 88' Carrillo 90+2' (pen.)	Report	Diaby 14'

Semi-finals

Palmeiras	2–0	Al Ahly
Veiga 39' Dudu 49'	Report

Al-Hilal	0–1	Chelsea
	Report	Lukaku 32'

Match for fifth place

Monterrey	3–1	Al-Jazira
Sultan 4' (o.g.) Funes Mori 11' Montes 25'	Report	Bruno 90+1'

Match for third place

Al-Hilal	0–4	Al Ahly
	Report	Ibrahim 8', 17' Abdel Kader 40' El Solia 64'

Final

Chelsea	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Palmeiras
Lukaku 54' Havertz 117' (pen.)	Report	Veiga 64' (pen.)

Goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Abdoulay Diaby	Al-Jazira	2
	Yasser Ibrahim	Al Ahly
	Romelu Lukaku	Chelsea
	Raphael Veiga	Palmeiras
5	Ahmed Abdel Kader	Al Ahly	1
	Zayed Al-Ameri	Al-Jazira
	Ahmed Al-Attas	Al-Jazira
	Salem Al-Dawsari	Al-Hilal
	Bruno	Al-Jazira
	André Carrillo	Al-Hilal
	Dudu	Palmeiras
	Amr El Solia	Al Ahly
	Rogelio Funes Mori	Monterrey
	Mohamed Hany	Al Ahly
	Kai Havertz	Chelsea
	Odion Ighalo	Al-Hilal
	Mohamed Kanno	Al-Hilal
	Miloš Kosanović	Al-Jazira
	Moussa Marega	Al-Hilal
	César Montes	Monterrey
	Matheus Pereira	Al-Hilal

1 own goal

• Mohammed Rabii (Al-Jazira, against AS Pirae)
• Zayed Sultan (Al-Jazira, against Monterrey)

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. Thiago Silva of Chelsea won the Golden Ball award, sponsored by Adidas, which is jointly awarded with the Alibaba Cloud Award to recognise the player of the tournament.

Adidas Golden Ball Alibaba Cloud Award	Adidas Silver Ball	Adidas Bronze Ball
Thiago Silva (Chelsea)	Dudu (Palmeiras)	Danilo (Palmeiras)
FIFA Fair Play Award
Chelsea

FIFA also named a man of the match for the best player in each game at the tournament.

Alibaba Cloud Match Award

Match	Man of the match	Club	Opponent	Ref.
1	Mohammed Jamal	Al-Jazira	AS Pirae
2	Ramy Rabia	Al Ahly	Monterrey
3	Matheus Pereira	Al-Hilal	Al-Jazira
4	Raphael Veiga	Palmeiras	Al Ahly
5	Maximiliano Meza	Monterrey	Al-Jazira
6	Mateo Kovačić	Chelsea	Al-Hilal
7	Yasser Ibrahim	Al Ahly	Al-Hilal
8	Antonio Rüdiger	Chelsea	Palmeiras

References

1. "Update on FIFA Club World Cup and OFC preliminary competition for Qatar 2022". FIFA. 29 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
2. Harris, Rob (13 March 2019). "FIFA wants 24-team Club World Cup in 2021". APNews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
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38. ^ "Havertz the hero as Chelsea conquer the world". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 12 February 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2022.

External links

• Official website

• 2021 FIFA Club World Cup
• 2021 in association football
• 2022 in association football
• International club association football competitions hosted by the United Arab Emirates
• 2021–22 in Emirati football
• February 2022 sports events in the United Arab Emirates
• Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• FIFA Club World Cup tournaments