The FIFA Intercontinental Cup is an international men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

competition organised by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, the sport's global

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

. The first edition took place in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. The competition features the club champions of the six confederations of FIFA, and is played as a

knockout tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

with the European team receiving a bye to the final. The winners are awarded the title of annual

world champions A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

are the current champions, having defeated

Pachuca Pachuca (; ), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the east-central Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca Municipality, Pach ...

3–0 in the inaugural

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

in 2024.

History

On 16 December 2022, the

FIFA Council The FIFA Council (formerly the FIFA Executive Committee) is an institution of FIFA (the governing body of association football, futsal and beach football). It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of FIFA Congress ...

approved the expansion of the

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

from seven to thirty-two teams beginning in

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. The 2023 tournament was therefore the last played under the previous format. However, FIFA reported that confederations expressed the need for the champions of their top club competitions to still play each other annually to "stimulate competitiveness". Therefore, on 14 March 2023, the FIFA Council approved a concept for an annual club competition beginning in 2024, later named as the FIFA Intercontinental Cup. FIFA considers this tournament to be a direct continuation of the FIFA Club World Cup, held from 2000 to 2023. The similarly named

Intercontinental Cup Intercontinental Cup may refer to: Football * FIFA Intercontinental Cup, an association football competition involving the club champions of the six confederations of FIFA * Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004), an association football competition o ...

(1960–2004) was a club competition organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

and

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

which was usually contested by between the champions of the two respective confederations. However, the new FIFA organised competition features the champions of the top club competitions of the six confederations, namely the

AFC Champions League Elite The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

CONCACAF Champions Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

OFC Champions League The OFC Men's Champions League is the premier men's club football competition in Oceania. It is organised by the OFC, Oceania's football governing body. Beginning as the Oceania Club Championship (1987–2006), it has been organised since 2007 ...

and

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, and it retains the world title of the preceding FIFA Club World Cup. The inaugural edition of the tournament took place from September to December 2024, with the final stages played in

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

Format

The competition features a series of intercontinental play-offs between clubs from all confederations except UEFA, whose club receives a bye to the final. *First round: The OFC representative will face the AFC or CAF representative on an alternating basis (a draw for the 2024 edition determined the AFC representative will play in the first round of even-numbered years). The match, denominated as the "FIFA African–Asian–Pacific Cup play-off", is hosted by the higher-ranked club in the men's national teams' FIFA rankings. *Second round: The other AFC/CAF representative (which received a bye) will face the winners of the first round in a match denominated the "FIFA African–Asian–Pacific Cup", hosted by the higher-ranked club in the men's national teams' FIFA rankings. Elsewhere, the CONMEBOL and CONCACAF representatives will face at a neutral venue in a match denominated the "FIFA Derby of the Americas". *Play-off: The two second round winners will face at a neutral venue, in a match denominated the "FIFA Challenger Cup". *Final: The play-off winners will face the UEFA representative at a neutral venue, in a match denominated the "FIFA Intercontinental Cup", to determine the champions. If a match is tied after normal playing time,

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

is played. If still tied after extra time, a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

is held to determine the winner.

Bracket

Trophies

The FIFA Intercontinental Cup trophy is similar in design to the

trophy used from

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

. It features a circular base with six pillars extending upward from it, supporting a globe shaped like a football. The trophy is gold in colour and has a plaque on the base with the name and year of the tournament. The three trophies for the earlier rounds of the tournament resemble smaller versions of the main FIFA Intercontinental Cup trophy. The trophies are primarily silver and feature four pillars supporting the globe at the top. The trophies are identical to each other aside from the plaque on the base which says the name of each cup, and the accent colour: red for the African–Asian–Pacific Cup, blue for the Derby of the Americas, and white for the Challenger Cup.

Results

Finals

Secondary trophy winners

In addition to the final, trophies are awarded to the winning teams of the African–Asian–Pacific Cup (contested by the AFC, CAF and OFC representatives), Derby of the Americas (contested by the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL representatives) and Challenger Cup (contested by the winners of the two aforementioned matches).

Awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Intercontinental cup FIFA club competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2023 World championships in association football