Chelsea finally learns 2021/22 Club World Cup fate

Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Manchester City in Porto last May opened a lot of new doors for the club. The reigning Champions League winner got to play in the UEFA Super Cup before the season began, officially kicking off its season with another European trophy. There were also a plethora of smaller perks, like being able to parade the big-eared trophy around Stamford Bridge during a preseason friendly against Spurs and wearing the title holders’ badge on the sleeve of the home kits in the UCL. Regardless, the biggest reward of them all was a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup.

The Club World Cup was originally slated to be played in Japan in early December of this year. The Asian host nation ultimately decided to pull out though due to the rising number of Coronavirus cases in the country following the Summer Olympics. This put the future of the tournament in jeopardy before many of its competitors had even qualified. Rest assured, the Club World Cup is officially back on and it’ll be hosted by the United Arab Emirates in early 2022.

Chelsea will travel to the UAE in January 2022 to play in the Club World Cup

The Blues will now play the tournament a month later and the bracket features a few new faces. Al Jazira (2020/21 UAE Pro League winner) replaces the previous Japanese host as the representative of the Asian Football Confederation. Joining Al Jazira will be Auckland City (OFC)
and Al Ahly (CAF). There are still three spots up for grabs overall and they will be filled by winners from AFC, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. For the former, Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia) will battle Pohang Steelers (South Korea) in the AFC Champions League final. CONCACAF will be represented by a Mexican giant in either Club America or Monterrey. Brazil will send its best to CONMEBOL—to everybody’s surprise—through either Flamengo or Palmeiras. As a reminder, Chelsea will join the competition in the semifinal round, along with the winner of the Copa Libertadores.

The Blues will play two games at most in the tournament. Nevertheless, the rescheduling did not work in its favor. Thomas Tuchel’s men are slated to have a busy schedule in December (Watford, West Ham, Zenit, Leeds, Everton, Wolves, Aston Villa and Brighton) but none of the contests are overly challenging. This is not the case for January as Chelsea’s three opponents are Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham. The reigning UEFA Champions League winner will now have to fit a trip to west Asia into that brutal fixture list.

There is no telling how Tuchel will choose to approach the competition now that it has been moved. The club has played in it just once before and this is the one trophy that has eluded it in years past. The Blues finished as runners up in 2012; Chelsea hasn’t played in the tournament since that crushing defeat in the final. Tuchel already has two European trophies to his name, he’ll surely want to add a third piece of silverware, but at what cost? That’ll be the big question as the date draws closer. Jurgen Klopp brushed off the international games during his club’s busy schedule a few seasons ago. Even though Liverpool went on to win, the German manager downplayed the tournament’s importance. Tuchel likely won’t take as passive an approach as his compatriot, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see him send a second string starting XI.

In the end it’s just nice to know the competition didn’t get cancelled. There was a lot of talk about the problems it caused over the last few months and seeing as this is the one bit of silverware the Blues have not lifted, it’d have been a shame to see their chance taken away from them. The domestic games will undoubtedly take precedent in January but the Club World Cup is still important in the grand scheme of things.

How do you think Chelsea will perform in the Club World Cup? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!