{"id":256167,"date":"2026-01-21T13:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256167\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:25:07","slug":"womens-club-world-cup-wsl-against-potentially-catastrophic-new-competitions-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/256167\/","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Club World Cup: WSL against potentially &#8216;catastrophic&#8217; new competition&#8217;s schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is the second new mid-season women&#8217;s competition to be introduced by Fifa in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The inaugural Champions Cup \u2013 featuring continental champions from around the world, including Arsenal \u2013 will take place next week in London, between 28 January and 1 February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">WSL officials say the planned Club World Cup would result in up to five WSL match weeks being rescheduled, leading to a potential fixture backlog and an impact on player fitness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They say they have written to Fifa with their concerns and will meet with global officials in London during the Champions Cup to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">BBC Sport has been told the WSL would rather the tournament is played in the summer during a fallow year with no other major global competitions, rather than disrupting the domestic schedule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The BBC also understands the planned schedule was presented at a WSL meeting with club captains on Monday, with players &#8220;shocked&#8221; by how busy the calendar could get.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The fact that the Club World Cup is scheduled for between the 2027 Women&#8217;s World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics is also a concern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There are no gaps,&#8221; a WSL spokesperson said. &#8220;If the tournament is in a different time zone, with the rest and recovery needed, it could lead to rearrangement of a lot of fixtures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We know Arsenal will participate and Chelsea are likely to participate as well. It would be great for our clubs but their fixtures would probably have to move to midweek slots which are less attractive to fans. It is delicate timing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The WSL is now considering its options, although asking English teams to boycott the competition is not currently on the table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">One option being considered is moving the WSL winter break \u2013 which usually takes place over Christmas and New Year \u2013 so it covers the Club World Cup in the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the second new mid-season women&#8217;s competition to be introduced by Fifa in recent years. The inaugural&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-256167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}