Real Madrid will not play in expanded Club World Cup, warns Carlo Ancelotti

Real Madrid will refuse to play in Fifa’s expanded Club World Cup next summer due to lack of financial incentive to do so, their head coach, Carlo Ancelotti, has said.

Real had already qualified for the 32-team event in the United States by virtue of winning the Champions League in 2022, with the Spanish giants repeating the feat, for a 15th time, earlier this month.

However, Ancelotti has cast doubt on their involvement. “Players and clubs will not participate in that tournament,” he told the Italian newspaper, Il Giornale. “A single Real Madrid match is worth 20 million [euros] and Fifa wants to give us that amount for the entire cup. Like us, other clubs will refuse the invitation.”

The World Leagues Association, which includes the Premier League as a member, and world players’ union Fifpro last month threatened Fifa with legal action unless the Club World Cup is rescheduled. They said in a letter to the world governing body that the scheduling of the competition would cause “economic harm” to domestic leagues and would push players “beyond their limits”. Fifa has refused to back down, saying it was “fully within its rights” to set the parameters of the competition.

The Club World Cup does have the backing of the European Club Association (ECA), but Real have not been members of that organisation since the ill-fated formation of the European Super League in April 2021.