History
The 2000 FIFA Club World Championship, held in Brazil, consisted of eight qualifiers: the six continental champions, the 1998 Intercontinental Champions and the host nation champions. The tournament was controversial, most notably in England where Manchester United chose to withdraw from a national cup competition, the FA Cup, in order to compete. The launch of the competition was understood by some to be part of a struggle between FIFA and UEFA, who were competing for control of international club football: the existing Intercontinental Cup was outside of FIFA's jurisdiction. The final was competed between the two Brazilian sides and the winner was Sport Club Corinthians Paulista in a penalty shoot-out over Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama.
The second competition was pencilled in for Spain in 2001, to feature 12 teams. This was cancelled owing to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL. It was then intended to hold the event in 2003, but this also failed to happen. FIFA eventually agreed to terms with the UEFA to merge the two competitions.
The final Intercontinental Cup was in 2004, with the first installment of the relaunched Club World Championship Toyota Cup held in Japan between December 11 and December 18, 2005.
The 2005 relaunched version was shorter than the previous World Championship, reducing the problem of scheduling the tournament around the different club seasons across each continent. It contained just the six reigning continental champions, with the CONMEBOL and UEFA champions receiving byes to the semi-finals of the tournament. A completely new trophy was introduced, replacing all previous cups: the Intercontinental trophy, the Toyota trophy and the trophy won by Corinthians in 2000.
The competition was then renamed as FIFA Club World Cup for the 2006 event, which was held annually in Japan until 2008. The United Arab Emirates hosted the event in 2009 and 2010. For the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup, a play-off match between the OFC champions and the host-nation champions for entry into the quarter-final stage was introduced in order to increase home interest in the tournament. The reintroduction of the match for fifth place for the 2008 competition also prompted an increase in prize money by US$500,000 to a total of US$16.5 million. The winners took away $5 million, second-placed team received $4 million, the third-placed team $2.5 million, the fourth-placed team $2 million, the fifth-placed team $1.5 million, the sixth-placed team $1 million and the seventh-placed team received $500,000.
In February 2008 a FIFA Club World Cup Champions Badge was introduced, featuring an image of the trophy, which the reigning champion is entitled to display on its kit until the final of the next championship. Initially, all four previous champions were allowed to wear the badge until the 2008 final, where Manchester United gained the sole right to wear the badge by winning the trophy.
The teams with the most appearances in the competition is Al Ahly SC of Egypt who has played in four out of the nine tournaments held – 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2012, and Auckland City of New Zealand who has played in four out of the nine tournaments held – 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012.
Read more about this topic: FIFA Club World Cup
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