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Carlo Ancelotti defied? Real Madrid insist they WILL participate in revamped Club World Cup as manager backtracks on claims European champions would snub FIFA
Real Madrid have clarified their position on the new 32-team Club World Cup after comments from Carlo Ancelotti cast doubt over their participation.
Madrid were forced to make a public announcement, insisting that “at no time” have they ever considered not competing as reigning European champions at the next edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Ancelotti also backtracked after he was quoted by an Italian newspaper suggesting Madrid wouldn’t be involved.
Ancelotti’s interview with Il Giornale included the following remarks: “FIFA can forget it. The club and the footballers won’t participate in that tournament. One Real Madrid game is worth €20 million (£17m/$22m), and FIFA wants to give us that sum for the entire tournament. No way. Like us, other clubs will refuse the invitation.”
Both Ancelotti and Madrid were quick to respond to the outcry.
An official statement from the club read: “Real Madrid CF announces that at no time has its participation in the new Club World Cup to be organised by FIFA in the upcoming 2024/2025 season been questioned. Therefore, our club will compete, as planned, in this official competition that we face with pride and with the utmost enthusiasm to make our millions of fans around the world dream again with a new title.”
On X, Ancelotti posted: “In my interview with Il Giornale, my words about the FIFA Club World Cup were not interpreted in the way I intended. Nothing could be further from my interest than to reject the possibility of playing in a tournament that I consider could be a great opportunity to continue fighting for big titles with Real Madrid.”
The FIFA Club World Cup has undergone significant changes and will no longer be an annual mini-tournament for seven teams (six continental champions and one host representative) held over a few days in December.
The next edition has been expanded to 32 clubs and transformed into a quadrennial summer event lasting a full month, with the first set to begin in June 2025.
Additionally, FIFA has launched its own version of the old Intercontinental Cup, which serves as a more direct replacement for the previous Club World Cup.
This new annual event, scheduled for December, features a smaller format similar to the earlier Intercontinental Cup, held from 1960 until 2004, which pitted the European champions against the South American champions before merging with FIFA.
Real Madrid will soon welcome Kylian Mbappe and Endrick, enhancing the team that won last season’s European championship.
However, neither player is likely to be present when Ancelotti’s team plays their first game of a summer tour of the United States on July 31, due to their participation in Euro 2024 and Copa America, respectively.