United States set to host first Women’s Club World Cup in January 2028
The United States is set to stage the inaugural Women’s Club World Cup in January 2028, with Los Angeles and San Diego among the favoured host cities for the 19-team tournament. Discussions to bring the competition to the US are at an advanced stage and organisers are preparing for a January start.
Those talks have cleared a path for America to hold the 19-team event without a formal bidding process, even though Qatar had been in discussions with Fifa about hosting. Scheduling the tournament in winter avoids a clash with the men’s Copa America, for which the United States is the frontrunner to host in June and July 2028, but places the Club World Cup in a congested calendar for elite players.
The Club World Cup falls between the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, competitions that will require full-strength squads, and a number of top clubs are backing a rule change to limit players to one international tournament per year whether for club or country. That proposal has been raised amid concerns over player workload.
Fifa intends to use the Club World Cup as a trial ahead of the 2031 Women’s World Cup, which the United States will host alongside Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica; that joint-hosting decision is due to be formally approved at an Extraordinary Fifa Congress on 23 November. The governing body wants to test stadium venues, ticket pricing and demand at the smaller 19-team Club World Cup ahead of the 48-team World Cup planned three years later.
Organisers face a tight timetable: the Club World Cup is scheduled to begin on 5 January 2028. Sources cited the turmoil surrounding Fifa’s leadership since the emergence of Gianni Infantino’s ill-fated FFE scheme as a major factor in the backlog of outstanding hosting decisions.
In July, Europe’s top clubs threatened to boycott future Club World Cups unless the FFE project was abandoned, and they warned that their stance would remain unless a joint venture between European Football Clubs and Fifa, agreed in outline form but not yet signed off, was completed before television rights for the women’s Club World Cup could be sold. Another event still seeking a venue is the 2029 men’s Club World Cup; the United States has expressed interest in hosting that competition but, should the women’s event be confirmed in the US, it appears more likely to be co-hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal ahead of their joint staging of the men’s World Cup the following year.
A formal deal to host the first Women’s Club World Cup in the United States has not been confirmed and organisers must finalise arrangements and commercial agreements before the tournament’s 5 January 2028 kick-off. Fifa was contacted for comment.