The Japanese Football Association (JFA) has decided to reportedly give up the hosting rights for the FIFA Club World Cup amid the Covid-19 restrictions in the region.
It has been reported that JFA is in constant contact with FIFA discussing the matter and also considering the loss of money they will have if they conduct the tournament during stadium restrictions.
Back in December 2020, FIFA announced that Japan will be hosting the FIFA Club World Cup. The Asian country has hosted the tournament eight times before, most recently in 2016.
The latest edition of the FIFA Club World Cup was all set to be conducted in Japan with the semifinals and the finals stage of the tournament scheduled to be held in the Yokohama Stadium.
A senior JFA official said, “Unless we forge a path to where events can be staged in coexistence with the virus, soccer as well as other sports won’t be able to maintain themselves.”
Japan was expected to host the tournament with 100 per cent capacity with crowds over 60,000. A big amount of crowd in the stadium would have resulted in profits for the JFA. However, due to the rising cases of Covid-19 in the region, JFA reported its profit for 2020 drop by ¥5bn (€38.4m/$45.4m) from 2019 to ¥15bn.
FIFA, however, is still undecided on backup hosts of the tournament and it looks like that the tournament will be postponed to early 2022.
FIFA stated that “Details of the next FIFA Club World Cup will be confirmed in due course.”