A revamped Club World Championship with six teams will be held in Tokyo from December 2005 with US$15.0 million prize money on offer, FIFA announced on Monday.
Three months after announcing the bare bones of the competition, FIFA confirmed on Friday that it will take place from December 11-18 next year and that all six confederations had agreed to send their champion clubs.
The annual championship will replace the current World Club Cup which has been played between the champions of South America and Europe most years since 1960. Those games have been staged in Tokyo since 1980.
The European and South American champions will now join those from Africa, Asia, Oceania and CONCACAF in the tournament that has so far been staged once in Brazil in 2000.
The idea has been opposed by Europe's leading clubs, but their opposition may be tempered by the huge annual prize money on offer.
The new competition was ratified by FIFA's executive committee meeting in Paris on Monday after the representatives of all of FIFA's confederations agreed their champion teams would be obliged to take part in the tournament.
The format was agreed in London in February and it will last for eight days. The European and South American champions will be introduced at the semi-final stage, meaning they will play a maximum of two games.
The four other teams will meet each other in a first round knockout match to decide who qualifies for the semi-finals.
In February, the 102-strong European Club forum said it was totally opposed to the championship, but it would now seem that next season's European champion will have little option but to take part.
TASK FORCE
In other matters, FIFA agreed to set up a task force to examine complaints lodged by the G-14 group of major European clubs with the Swiss Competitions Committee (COMCO). The G-14 wants salary and insurance compensation for its players called up for international duty.
FIFA also confirmed that next year's Confederations Cup -- the warm-up tournament for the 2006 World Cup finals -- would take place in Germany from June 15-29.
The Executive committee also ratified the decision taken by the board of FIFA Marketing & TV that from 2007 the television rights to each tournament will be open to separate public tender.
Four new categories for FIFA's marketing partners were also approved: FIFA Partner; FIFA World Cup Partner; National Supporter and Global Supplier.
The status of "observer" for the President of the Oceania Football Confederation was also confirmed until further notice, as Oceania's elected representative on the FIFA executive is not the President of the OFC.
FIFA will also tighten up the loophole on international eligibility which will be presented to its congress in Paris on Friday. Qatar tried to exploit it recently by signing up Brazilians to play for its national team.
FIFA also officially lifted the suspension of the Guatemalan football association and it praised those running soccer in war-ravaged Iraq for keeping the league championship going and for its Under-23 team reaching the Olympic Games in Athens later this summer.
