FIFA Postpones 2001 Club World Championship To 2003.

The 2001 edition of the FIFA Club World Championship, due to be held in Spain from 28 July to 12 August, will be postponed to 2003. This decision was taken by the FIFA Emergency Committee today after careful examination of the situation.

“The decision not to go ahead with this event as scheduled has been taken on account of various factors”, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter said. These include the following:

The period during which the competition was to be staged is particularly inconvenient from the perspective of national and international fixtures (national leagues and Champions League qualifiers are in progress).

The economic crises affecting the countries of some of the participating clubs further heighten existing commercial difficulties.

The current commercial market has been considerably disrupted by the problems confronting ISL/ISMM. This has left FIFA’s marketing partner for the event, Traffic, confronted by major difficulties in selling the 2001 edition to sponsors and broadcasters.

In view of this situation and after consultation with the Spanish Football Federation, the host association for the championship, the FIFA Emergency Committee deemed it preferable to postpone the event to 2003, a year in which this competition has been planned at a more appropriate juncture in the Coordinated International Match Calendar, which will take effect at the start of 2002.
With the 12-team tournament just over two months away and given the fact that FIFA will have to take on additional responsibilities due to the imminent bankruptcy of ISL/ISMM, its marketing partner for the 2002 FIFA World Cup™, the Emergency Committee also felt that it was essential for FIFA to readjust its focus to these issues.

For more information at http://www.fifa.com/