2019 FIFA Club World Cup
The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The tournament was hosted by Qatar between 11 and 21 December 2019, taking place at two venues in Doha.
Liverpool won the final 1–0 after extra time against Flamengo for their first FIFA Club World Cup title.
Host appointment
With proposals for an expanded Club World Cup, FIFA delayed the announcement of a host. A host was to be announced by FIFA on 15 March 2019, though this was later delayed. On 28 May 2019, FIFA announced that the 2019 and 2020 tournament host would be appointed at the FIFA Council meeting in Paris, France on 3 June 2019.Qatar was appointed as the host for the 2019 and 2020 tournaments on 3 June 2019, serving as test events ahead of their hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The Club World Cup retained its original format ahead of the revamp in 2021.
Qualified teams
The following teams qualified for the tournament.Notes
Venues
FIFA announced the three venues for the tournament, along with the match schedule, on 30 September 2019. All three stadiums were located in Doha, with the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium and the Khalifa International Stadium having hosted matches at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, including the final for the latter. The newly built Education City Stadium, which was selected to host the final match, is also a host venue for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as is the Khalifa International Stadium. On 7 December 2019, FIFA moved all three matches that were due to be played at the Education City Stadium to Khalifa International Stadium after the opening of the Education City Stadium was postponed to early 2020.Match officials
Five referees, ten assistant referees, and six video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.| Confederation | Referee | Assistant referees | Video assistant referee |
| AFC | Abdulrahman Al-Jassim | Taleb Al-Marri Saoud Al-Maqaleh | Fu Ming |
| CAF | Mustapha Ghorbal | Mahmoud Abouelregal Mokrane Gourari | Bakary Gassama |
| CONCACAF | Ismail Elfath | Kyle Atkins Corey Parker | Alan Kelly |
| CONMEBOL | Roberto Tobar | Christian Schiemann Claudio Ríos Ortiz | Esteban Ostojich |
| UEFA | Ovidiu Hațegan | Octavian Șovre Sebastian Gheorghe | Juan Martínez Munuera Benoît Millot |
One support referee was also named for the tournament.
| Confederation | Support referee |
| OFC | Abdelkader Zitouni |
Squads
Each team had to name a 23-man squad. Injury replacements were allowed until 24 hours before the team's first match.Matches
The draw of the tournament was held on 16 September 2019, 14:00 CEST, at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich, to decide the matchups of the second round, and the opponents of the two second round winners in the semi-finals. At the time of the draw, the identity of the teams from AFC and CONMEBOL were not known.If a match was tied after normal playing time:
- For elimination matches, extra time was played. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was held to determine the winner.
- For the matches for fifth place and third place, no extra time was played, and a penalty shoot-out was held to determine the winner.
First round
Second round
----Match for fifth place
Semi-finals
----Match for third place
Final
Goalscorers
1 own goal- Ali Al-Bulaihi
Final ranking
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. Mohamed Salah of Liverpool won the Golden Ball award, sponsored by Adidas, which is jointly awarded with the Alibaba Cloud Player of the Tournament award.Criticism
In 2017, three member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council along with Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and criminalised trips for their citizens to the country. In October, FIFA sold 200 Club World Cup tickets to fans from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and 500 to those from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. In November 2019, Human Rights Watch criticised FIFA for neglecting fan welfare and selling tickets for the Club World Cup to those banned by their governments. HRW stated that FIFA should be aware of the risks that the football supporters can face in their countries and ensure that they are not exposed to the risk of harassment or prosecution.On 5 November 2019, the Liverpool Chief Executive Peter Moore assured that the Qatari authorities had permitted LGBT football fans to attend the FIFA Club World Cup matches in December 2019.