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Manchester City will be hoping they are involved at the next Club World Cup, with talk of three English clubs - and not two - set to be at the 2029 tournament
One more English club is set to be added in FIFA's next Club World Cup as the restrictions on the maximum of teams per country is expected to be loosened, it has been claimed.
Manchester City and Chelsea - having won the Champions League in 2023 and 2021 - were the two Premier League representatives at the revamped Club World Cup in the summer.
Pep Guardiola's City reached the last 16 before losing to Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal, while Chelsea went on and won the tournament after earning a 3-0 win against Paris Saint-Germain.
According to The Times, UEFA would not appose a move by FIFA to increase the cap from two clubs per nation to three but would have issue if the tournament is staged every other year or expand it from 32 teams.
Some at FIFA were frustrated that the inaugural tournament in the United States was played without the champions in England, Italy and Spain - Liverpool, Napoli and Barcelona - which led to criticism. Allowing three clubs per country would reduce the chances of that happening again in four years time.
The future of the Club World Cup is set to be raised at a FIFA council meeting on Thursday, though there is not expected to be a final decision regarding number of clubs included per country yet.
FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani felt the tournament had been a big success. When asked if he was in favour of increasing the number of clubs at the Club World Cup, he told the Leaders sports business conference in London: "After the first one, like running any business, after your first month you ask do you have enough people? Do you have the right product?
"We need to discuss with stakeholders like the ECA in Europe, was the format the right format? Do we need to have more clubs or do we have a different variety of clubs in terms of how they qualify?"
The 12 European clubs for this year's competition qualified by either winning the Champions League across the past four seasons or via UEFA's club coefficient rankings. If three English clubs were allowed in the 2025 Club World Cup, Liverpool would have been included as part of the tournament.
Increasing the number of teams - and therefore matches - would not go down well with some. Among those that might be against that is City midfielder Rodri, who admitted players could go on strike if the schedule increases.
"I think we are close to that," said Rodri when asked whether players will strike. If it keeps this way, it will be a moment that we have no other option, but let's see."
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English (US) ·