This list includes the official (de jure)world champion football clubs recognized by FIFA, as well as clubs that won unrecognized world tournaments like the Copa Rio and the Small Club World Cup. The official competitions that grant this title are the Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004) and the FIFA Club World Cup (2000, 2005–present).
The Intercontinental Cup, also known as European/South American Cup, was an official international football competition endorsed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL), [1] [2] [3] contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the European Champions' Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League), and the South American Copa Libertadores. The competition was played by representative clubs of most developed continents in the football world; has since been replaced by the FIFA Club World Cup. All editions were official UEFA and CONMEBOL competitions, [4] [5] and indirectly also of FIFA. [6] [7] [8] [9]
From its formation in 1960 to 1979, the competition was contested over a two-legged tie, with a playoff if necessary until 1968, and penalty kicks later. During the 1970s, European participation in the Intercontinental Cup became a running question due to controversial events in the 1969 final, [10] and some European Champions Club' winner teams withdrew. [11] From 1980 until 2004, the competition was contested over a single match held in Japan and sponsored by multinational automaker Toyota, which offered a secondary trophy (that flanked the original), the Toyota Cup. [12]
Throughout the history of football, various attempts have been made to organise a tournament that identifies "the best club team in the world" – such as the Football World Championship, the Lipton Trophy, the Pequeña Copa del Mundo - due to FIFA's lack of interest or inability to organise club competitions. [13] The Intercontinental Cup is considered by FIFA as the official predecessor [14] [6] to the FIFA Club World Cup, which was held for the first time in 2000. [15]
All the winning teams were regarded by worldwide mass media and the football community, FIFA included (as News Center productions and not cataloged on the FIFA website as official entity documents), [16] as "world champions" de facto. [17] [18] [19] [20] On 27 October 2017, the FIFA Council, while not promoting statistical unification between the Intercontinental Cup and the Club World Cup, in respect to the history of the two tournaments [21] (which merged in 2005), [22] has officialised ( de jure ) the title of the Intercontinental Cup, recognising all the winners as official club world champions, [23] [24] [25] [26] with the same title of the FIFA Club World Cup winners, or "FIFA Club World Champions". [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]
FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament officially assigns the world title. [34] The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. [35] Since 2005, the competition has been held every year, and has been hosted by Brazil, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The FIFA Club World Cup's prestige is perceived quite differently in different parts of the football world; while it is widely regarded as the most distinguished club-level trophy in South America, [36] [37] it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe compared to the UEFA Champions League and commonly lacks recognition as a high-ranking contest. [38] [39]
The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in 2000. but the failure of ISL caused FIFA to discontinue the tournament and cancel the following year competition to be held in Spain. This first failed installment ran parallel with the Intercontinental Cup (also known as European/South American Cup), a competition organized jointly by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) first disputed in 1960 by the winners of the European Champions Cup and the Copa Libertadores. FIFA finally managed to buy the prestigious Japanese Event and in 2005, after the Intercontinental Cup's last edition, that competition was merged with FIFA. The failed FIFA Club World Cup's first edition was renamed as "FIFA Club World Championship" and a new Trophy replaced the Intercontinental Cup Trophy as well as the Toyota Cup. In 2006, the tournament took its current name.
The current format of the tournament involves seven teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks; the winners of that year's AFC Champions League (Asia), CAF Champions League (Africa), CONCACAF Champions League (North America), Copa Libertadores (South America), OFC Champions League (Oceania) and UEFA Champions League (Europe), along with the host nation's national champions, participate in a straight knock-out tournament. The host nation's national champions dispute a play-off against the Oceania champions, from which the winner joins the champions of Asia, Africa, and North America at the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go on to face the European and South American champions, who enter the semi-final stage, for a place in the final. In Europe the tournament is almost ignored by the mass media, also because of its sporting level, considered inferior to the Intercontinental Cup, [40] indeed when the sides used to meet in a one-off game in Japan (and even before), this was still a fair fight. The opening up of the global market in football has changed the balance. These days the best South Americans (and the stars from all the other continents) are usually playing in Europe. [41] [42]
Before the tournaments of today, there were two tournaments that may be considered to be the early beginnings of the FIFA Club World Cup; these are the Copa Rio and the Small Club World Cup bowl held during the early 1950s, however, these have been challenged by FIFA for world championships status. The Copa Rio, first initiated in 1951, was the very first international club competition that included Europe an South American teams such as Juventus and Palmeiras. Another Copa club competition of the world club tournament was the Small Club World Cup before 1952, in 1957 and mostly in Venezuela where clubs like Real Madrid and Corinthians competed. While these tournaments are helping in promoting international relations and competition, FIFA does not classify them as world championships; there have been disputes on whether these tournaments hold any significant value as part of the history of football.
Year | Champion | Runner-up | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1951 | Palmeiras | Juventus | 1–0 | 2–2 | Maracanã Stadium |
1952 | Fluminense | Corinthians | 2–0 | 2–2 | Maracanã Stadium |
Edition | Year | Champion | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1952 | Real Madrid | Botafogo |
2 | 1953 (I) [note 1] | Millonarios | River Plate |
3 | 1953 (II) [note 1] | Corinthians | Roma |
4 | 1955 | São Paulo | Valencia |
5 | 1956 | Real Madrid | Vasco da Gama |
6 | 1957 | Barcelona | Botafogo |
7 | 1963 | São Paulo | Real Madrid |
Note
† | Match was won after extra time | ||
‡ | Match was won via a penalty shoot-out |
† | Match was won after extra time | ||
‡ | Match was won via a penalty shoot-out |
Edition | Season | Hosts | Champions | Score | Runners-up | Venue | Location | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2024 | [131] | ||||||
In synthesis FIFA has two types of world champions Intercontinental Cup and those deriving from the Club World Cup (the two competitions, albeit different, confer the same title, that of FIFA club world champions) [132] [133] [134] so in accordance to what is officially communicated by FIFA, the total count of official [135] [6] [136] [133] world titles is as follows: [137] [138] [139] [140] [141] [142] [134] [132]
IC | Intercontinental Cup |
CWC | FIFA Club World Cup |
Country | IC | CWC | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Spain | 4 | 8 | 12 |
Brazil | 6 | 4 | 10 |
Argentina | 9 | 0 | 9 |
Italy | 7 | 2 | 9 |
Uruguay | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Germany | 3 | 2 | 5 |
England | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Netherlands | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Portugal | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Paraguay | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Serbia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Confederation | IC | CWC | Total |
---|---|---|---|
UEFA | 21 | 16 | 37 |
CONMEBOL | 22 | 4 | 26 |
IC | Intercontinental Cup |
CWC | FIFA Club World Cup |
Club | IC | CWC | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Independiente | 4 | — | 1964, 1965, 1972, 1974 |
Estudiantes LP | 2 | 1 | 1969, 1970, 2009 |
Benfica | 2 | — | 1961, 1962 |
Cruzeiro | 2 | — | 1976, 1997 |
River Plate | 1 | 1 | 1996, 2015 |
Boca Juniors | 1 | 1 | 2001, 2007 |
Vasco da Gama | 1 | 1 | 1998, 2000 (CWC) |
Palmeiras | 1 | 1 | 1999, 2021 |
Celtic | 1 | — | 1967 |
Panathinaikos | 1 | — | 1971 |
Borussia Mönchengladbach | 1 | — | 1977 |
Malmö FF | 1 | — | 1979 |
Nottingham Forest | 1 | — | 1980 |
Aston Villa | 1 | — | 1982 |
Hamburger SV | 1 | — | 1983 |
Argentinos Juniors | 1 | — | 1985 |
Steaua București | 1 | — | 1986 |
PSV Eindhoven | 1 | — | 1988 |
Atlético Nacional | 1 | — | 1989 |
Colo-Colo | 1 | — | 1991 |
Once Caldas | 1 | — | 2004 |
LDU Quito | — | 1 | 2008 |
TP Mazembe | — | 1 | 2010 |
Raja Casablanca | — | 1 | 2013 |
San Lorenzo | — | 1 | 2014 |
Kashima Antlers | — | 1 | 2016 |
Al Ain | — | 1 | 2018 |
Tigres UANL | — | 1 | 2020 |
Al Hilal | — | 1 | 2022 |
Fluminense | — | 1 | 2023 |
Confederation | IC | CWC | Total |
---|---|---|---|
CONMEBOL | 21 | 11 | 32 |
UEFA | 22 | 3 | 25 |
AFC | 0 | 3 | 3 |
CAF | 0 | 2 | 2 |
CONCACAF | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The Intercontinental Cup, also known as the Toyota European/South American Cup for sponsorship reasons, from 1980 to 2004, was an international football competition endorsed by UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL, contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the South American Copa Libertadores. It ran from 1960 to 2004, when it was succeeded by the FIFA Club World Championship, although they both ran concurrently in 2000.
The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships, along with the current FIFA World Cup holder and the host nation, to bring the number of teams up to eight.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held from 2001 to 2004 due to a combination of factors in the cancelled 2001 tournament, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), but since 2005 it has been held every year. Views differ as to the cup's prestige: it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe, and is the object of heated debate in South America.
The CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, previously known officially as the European/South American Nations Cup and also called Artemio Franchi Cup, is an intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by the winners of the Copa América and UEFA European Championship. Organised as an occasional one-off match, it is a national team equivalent to the defunct Intercontinental Cup between the club champions of Europe and South America. The competition was held twice, in 1985 and 1993, before being discontinued. It was relaunched in 2022, where it was branded as the Finalissima, after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between CONMEBOL and UEFA.
The 2007 FIFA Club World Cup final took place at the Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan on 16 December 2007.
The 2003 Intercontinental Cup was the 42nd Intercontinental Cup, an annual association football match contested by the winners of the previous season's UEFA Champions League and Copa Libertadores competitions. The match was played on 14 December 2003 between Boca Juniors of Argentina, winners of the 2003 Copa Libertadores and Milan of Italy, winners of the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League. The match was played at the neutral venue of the International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama, in front of 70,000 fans. Matías Donnet was named as man of the match.
The 2004 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match that took place on 12 December 2004 between Porto of Portugal, winners of the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, and Once Caldas of Colombia, winners of the 2004 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the neutral venue of the International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan, in front of 45,748 fans. The match ended 0–0 after extra time, where Porto eventually won 8–7 in the penalty shoot-out. Maniche of Porto, despite being the only Porto player to miss his penalty kick, was named as man of the match.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The championship was first contested as the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. Following a change in format which saw the FIFA Club World Championship absorb the Intercontinental Cup, it was relaunched in 2005 and took its current name the season afterwards.
The 2000 Intercontinental Cup, officially the 2000 Toyota European / South American Cup for sponsorship reasons, was an association football match played on 28 November 2000 between Real Madrid, winners of the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League, and Boca Juniors, winners of the 2000 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the neutral venue of the National Stadium in Tokyo in front of 52,511 fans. Martín Palermo was named as man of the match.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship was first contested as the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. Following a change in format which saw the FIFA Club World Championship absorb the Intercontinental Cup, it was relaunched in 2005 and took its current name the season afterwards.
The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup final was the final match of the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup, an international club association football tournament hosted by the United Arab Emirates. It was the 15th final of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions.
The 2020 FIFA Club World Cup final was the final match of the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, an international club football tournament hosted by Qatar. It was the 17th final of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised tournament between the club champions from each of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions.
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