The inaugural 32-team FIFA Club World Cup is the most anticipated tournament of the year. Despite there being plenty of time until kick-off, there are concerns about fixture congestion.
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00:002024 might be over but 2025 provides a new year of exciting events in football.
00:06There are brand new competitions, more international tournaments and matters to
00:11be resolved off the pitch. Let's see what the new calendar year has in store for the
00:16world's most popular sport.
00:23Hello and welcome to Football Now from Albina Park in Doha and a happy new year to you all.
00:29Myself and the team here in Qatar are really looking forward to what should be
00:33another fascinating year for football in 2025. It's the year that we'll see the
00:38long-awaited introduction of FIFA's new revamped Club World Cup tournament.
00:43It might seem like a long way off but it's certainly one of the game's hottest topics
00:47at the moment. Taking place in the United States in June, 12 months before they co-host the 2026
00:54FIFA World Cup, the new look expanded tournament will now include 32 of the best domestic teams
01:00on the planet.
01:01I mean, I'm very excited for the players, very excited for the players and I tell you
01:05why because I played myself three World Cup with national team and it's something very
01:10exciting and their players in the world will have never had opportunity to play a World
01:14Cup, never with the national team. Unfortunately, to be able to play a Club World Cup will give
01:19emotions to them, will give they can compare themselves with the best of the best.
01:24There are massive clubs out there, massive, massive big club with fan base, with history,
01:29with future, with potential and we need to give these clubs a platform. We need to give
01:34these clubs proper preparation to be able to compete against each other.
01:39But the tournament has not come without controversy, sparking complaints from players and fans
01:45about the congestion of the fixture calendar.
01:47I mean, it's difficult. I think they reach the limit now where you play 60, 70,
01:53maybe 75 games in a season. It's a lot. And, you know, from my own perspective, I had some
01:58injuries in the last years, so it was hard for me to really take the time to come back
02:02on my top level, you know, and it's a big topic. You know, you have young players, you
02:06have older players, you have players who do this for 15 years, like Tony Kroos, you have
02:10players who maybe play this top, top level for two, three years. So it really depends.
02:14But in general, I think for the really high performing teams, high performing players,
02:19it's becoming a lot.
02:21Well, one team who will be making an appearance in the USA this summer are
02:24English side Manchester City. But it's a big year for City off the pitch as well.
02:29Their ongoing legal case against the Premier League should finally come to a conclusion.
02:34After an 11-week tribunal, the club are currently waiting to hear if they will be found guilty
02:39on 130 charges of financial rule breaking. If they are, the punishment could include
02:45relegation from England's top division.
02:48Can it just be dealt with? Can we be dealing with it? We're going to get some form of punishment.
02:53We have to. You can't have Forrest, you can't have Everton, you can't have all these teams
02:57getting points deductions and being punished and City not. Something is going to happen.
03:02Let's just get it done with. If it means we end up at the bottom of the league this season,
03:06so what? That's fine. We've still got the Champions League, we've still got the
03:09Club World Cup. Let's just deal with it, get it finished, and then we can start next year afresh.
03:16It's always that shadow of this belief that we cheated everything. And it's absolute disrespect
03:24to the lads that are on that pitch week in, week out. It's an absolute disrespect, you know,
03:30that people don't care that we've done four in a row. They don't care that we did the treble.
03:35They're not interested. Meanwhile in Switzerland, this summer we'll see the return of the Women's
03:40European Championships. Four years ago, England were crowned champions of Europe.
03:44After an extra time win against Germany in the final. It might be early days,
03:49but who could be capable of winning the trophy this time around?
03:53I really, really, I think we are more than capable, England, of doing it. We really are.
03:58It's going to take something really big to take this away from Spain. But I think we're capable
04:03of it. I see an England-Spain final. The only other two teams, I think, in the Euros that are
04:09worth a look at is Germany. They've only lost one game in their qualifying coming up. And
04:14Switzerland, not because they're a great team, can't underestimate a home crowd. Look at Australia,
04:21can't underestimate a home crowd. Euro 2025 in Switzerland promises to be another exciting
04:28tournament for women's football. Now here are some other stories to look out for from across
04:33the globe. This year will finalise a lot of the qualification spots for the 2026 World Cup in the
04:38USA, Canada and Mexico. There are a lot of countries vying to qualify for the first time
04:44thanks to the expanded tournament format, which will house 48 teams. Can the likes of Uzbekistan,
04:49Rwanda and Venezuela do the improbable and make their first appearance at the tournament?
04:55The Premier League's summer transfer window will go through a radical change, now closing before
05:00the season begins in August, instead of the usual 1st of September date. It's the result of years
05:05of discussion around coaches preferring to have their squads finalised before the season actually
05:10kicks off. AFCON 2025 will kick off at the end of the year, with Ivory Coast looking to defend
05:17their title they won in early 2024. The hosts will be Morocco, who haven't won the trophy since 1976.
05:25But with the likes of Yassine Bono, Nusair Mazraoui, Safian Amrabat and Raheem Diaz in their
05:31ranks, the Atlas Lions will be hoping to end that drought on home soil. 2025 has plenty in store for
05:38us then and we'll be sure to keep you informed all the way through the year here on Football Now.
05:44Let us know which topics you think we should be covering using the hashtag Football Now 2025.
05:49That's all we've got time for here from Albedo Park in Doha. We'll see you next time. Bye for now.