In the New Year Chelsea will enter a sixth different competition this season, competing in the Club World Cup as Europe’s representative following our Champions League triumph.
We will soon find out who we could be coming up against in the United Arab Emirates, and ahead of the draw we bring you everything you need to know about the tournament, which we will be aiming to win for the first time in our history…
Who is competing in the Club World Cup?
A total of seven different clubs will feature in the competition: the six winners of each confederation’s continental cup, and the UAE league champions.
The six teams currently confirmed to be participating are:
Chelsea – UEFA Champions League winnersAl Hilal – AFC Champions League winnersAl Ahly – CAF Champions League winnersMonterrey – CONCACAF Champions League winnersAuckland City – OFC representativesAl Jazira Club – UAE Pro League winnersPalmeiras - They beat fellow Brazilian side Flamengo, who had former Blues David Luiz and Filipe Luis in their defence, and brought on-loan Kenedy on as a sub, in the Copa Libertadores final on Saturday. They represent CONMEBOL.
When is the Club World Cup draw?
The draw to decide the fixtures of the 2021 Club World Cup will take place today (Monday 29 November) at 4pm UK time. It will be shown live on www.fifa.com, with John Terry helping conduct the draw in Zurich.
Who can Chelsea play in the Club World Cup?
The Blues will enter at the semi-final stage on a different side of the draw to Palmeiras, the CONMEBOL representatives.
Therefore, we could meet any of Al Hilal, Al Ahly, Monterrey, Auckland City or Al Jazira Club in the semi-final. Those five clubs enter in either the first round (Auckland and Al Jazira) or the second round (Al Hilal, Al Ahly and Monterrey).
Should we win our semi-final, we will play the winners of the other semi-final involving the Copa Libertadores champions. Should we lose, we will contest the third place play-off.
When is the Club World Cup?
FIFA announcend on Monday morning that the competition takes place between 3 and 12 February 2022.
What is Chelsea’s record in the Club World Cup?
This will be the second time we have competed in the tournament, which was first contested in 2000.
After our 2012 Champions League triumph we headed to Japan where we beat Monterrey 3-1 in the semi-final, before losing 1-0 to Corinthians in the final. That was the last time the UEFA Champions League victor did not win the Club World Cup.