Women's Club World Cup: WSL warns of potentially 'catastrophic' impact of schedule

Women's Club World Cup to take place in January 2028; WSL says timing of tournament causes "significant concerns" over domestic calendar and player welfare; global 16-team tournament could impact up to five match rounds of the league and fixtures could be moved to midweek

Friday 23 January 2026 10:50, UK

The scheduling of the inaugural Women's Club World Cup could be "catastrophic", says the Women's Super League.

FIFA has announced the tournament will take place from January 5-30, 2028, with the league writing formally to the world governing body to raise "significant concern" over what the schedule will mean for the domestic football calendar and player welfare.

"The timing of that tournament causes us significant concern," a WSL spokesperson said.

"At best, it is inconvenient and is going to cause real scheduling issues for us. At worst, it's catastrophic for the game in this country, for our commercial programme and more importantly, for the welfare of our players."

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The WSL says the scheduling of the global 16-team tournament could impact up to five match rounds of the league and fixtures could be moved to midweek.

The tournament taking place in the middle of the 2027/28 season would be bookended by a World Cup and the Olympics.

"If that tournament is also in a different time zone and there needs to be travel and then rest, recovery and training ahead of a tournament and the same back the other way, we could be moving a lot of fixtures," a WSL spokesperson added.

"We know Arsenal will participate as current holders of the Champions League. Based on the current coefficient, if they use that, Chelsea would probably qualify. But there could be more than two of our teams."

Sky Sports News has been told the WSL is not against the concept of a Club World Cup and wants to give clubs and players the opportunity to compete at the highest level, but would rather it be played in the summer during a fallow year.

A WSL spokesperson also added that there were concerns among clubs and players about the schedule.

What has FIFA said?

FIFA chief football officer and former United States women's national team coach Jill Ellis, who coached the USA to Women's World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019, told the BBC: "These consultations have happened since 2022, and this window [January] was one of the windows agreed upon.

"It's hard to find the perfect spot, so it was important to involve a lot of people in these conversations.

"The Club World Cup was due to take place in 2026, stakeholders said that was too soon. The decision was taken on these recommendations to delay it until 2028."

On whether there is an appetite for the Club World Cup, Ellis said: "I think there is. I ran a club in San Diego for three years and players are competitive, there is banter about who is the best club in the world, the best league in the world.

"I recognise we have to grow it and educate people about it. This came to the calendar fairly late, but I think this will showcase these players around the world.

"And the coach in me thinks, a lot of players don't get a chance to play international football so there is that as well."

Last year, FIFA announced the inaugural Women's Champions Cup, which takes place this month.

The tournament unites the six continental champions, who compete for the title in seasons where the Women's Club World Cup is not held, and following two early round fixtures, four sides remain for the showcase event in London.

Sky Sports will exclusively broadcast all matches, kicking off with Gotham FC vs SC Corinthians (12.30pm) and Arsenal Women vs ASFAR (6pm), with both semi-finals being held at Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium on Wednesday, January 28.

The third-place play-off (2.45pm) and final (6pm) will then be hosted at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium four days later on Sunday, February 1.

Women's Club World Cup: WSL warns of potentially 'catastrophic' impact of schedule

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What has FIFA said?

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