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19th July 2025
11:44am BST
Chelsea stunned the football world last weekend as they dismantled European champions PSG 3-0 in the inaugural Club World Cup final in New York City.
The shocking result was eventually overshadowed after the final whistle as US President Trump massively overstepped the boundaries of his role presenting Chelsea captain Reese James with the trophy, crashing the club’s big moment by staying on stage during the trophy lift.
Despite Trump’s best efforts to disrupt Chelsea’s big moment, the West Londoners have now discovered they walked away from the big match as the only ever official Club World Cup champions, despite the tournament having existed for more than 20 years.
Although last month’s tournament was the largest scale by some margin, comprising of 32 teams, the Club World Cup was actually launched for the first time in the year 2000.
It returned in 2005 and was played annually until 2023.
Earlier tournaments were made up of just six or eight teams — all of which were the respective continental champions of their region — whereas this year's edition contained up to four teams from each continent.
In that time, four other English sides won the Club World Cup, including giants Man United, Liverpool and Man City.
Real Madrid have also won five times, Barcelona four, and Bayern Munich have lifted the trophy twice.
According to a new report in today’s Mail, all of those previous winners have lost their world champion status and will be re-branded as “Intercontinental Champions” instead.
FIFA are yet to officially announce the change but a statement is expected soon.
Chelsea’s unrivalled status was alluded to after last Sunday’s final, as the official Club World Cup Twitter/X accounted posted a picture of the champions lifting their new prize alongside this caption: “The first ever #FIFACWC Champions.”
While none of the demoted clubs have yet responded to FIFA’s controversial decision, it now appears the only way to return to world champion status is by first qualifying and then winning the 2029 tournament.
