The next few years of international football will see some history-making tournaments with UEFA and FIFA ramping up their competition calendar. The global footballing body has been the busiest adding new competitions and making unprecedented changes to the existing ones increasing the amount of action. Hardly any summer window of the year is expected to be free with fans getting the treat of major international competitions after every club season. UEFA will host five events in the next 10 years whereas FIFA will schedule one more than the European football body will do in the same period giving the sport its most intense schedule in history.
Here are the upcoming major UEFA and FIFA international events:
FIFA Club World Cup 2025
The Club World Cup was an annual club competition organized by FIFA and contested by teams of different confederations winning their continental championship that year. However, the tournament has gone through a complete transformation after the 2023 edition which is the last of its present format. The Club World Cup will be played every four years under an expanded format with 32 teams now, consisting of continental winners of the same period and the best-ranked sides in their respective confederations. The inaugural edition of the new format will be played in 2025, after plans to hold it in 2021 in China were canceled due to the pandemic back then, hosted in the United States from 15th June to 13th July. Manchester City are the defending champions winning the competition for the first time.
UEFA Women’s Euro 2025
Following the Club World Cup will be the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 set to take place in Switzerland from 2–27 July 2025. This will be the 14th edition of the competition and the third since the competition was expanded to 16 teams. The tournament is expected to be another successful one like the ground-breaking 2022 edition, delayed from 2021 due to the pandemic accommodating the men’s Euros originally scheduled in 2020. England won that competition on home turf in record-breaking style and has also qualified for the next edition along with finalists Germany, World Cup winners Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark and Iceland after finishing in the top two of the Euro qualifiers. The remaining eight teams will be determined through the playoffs. The finals will be played across eight venues in Switzerland with the final taking place at St. Jakob-Park Stadium in Basel.
FIFA World Cup 2026
From 2026 onwards, the FIFA World Cup for the men’s will see a tournament-high 48 teams participating. An expansion from the 32-team competition last played in Qatar two years ago. The teams will be split into 12 groups of four teams, with the top two from each group and the eight best third-placed teams progressing to a new round of 32 stage. The total number of games played will also increase from 64 to 104. The tournament will last for 39 days, an increase from 32 days in the previous editions. The World Cup will be hosted jointly by three nations Canada, Mexico and the USA for the first time in its history and in North America since 1994. The competition will be played across 16 venues from June 11 to July 19, 2026, with the final hosted at the 82,500-capacity MetLife Stadium. Argentina are the competition holders, having lifted the prestigious title for the third time in their history.
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027
After the huge success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand after it was expanded to 32 teams for the first time, the 2027 Women’s World Cup is expected to be even bigger and be another record-breaking tournament with Brazil officially confirmed as the hosts earlier in 2024. This is the first time the competition will be played in South America and Brazil is the sixth country to host it. They are also one of the few countries to host both the men’s and women’s World Cup. The ‘Copa do Mundo Feminina 2027’ will take place from 24th June to 25th July across 10 or more venues. Spain won their first Women’s World Cup in 2023 aiming to be only the second side in tournament history to defend the title.
UEFA Euro 2028
The 18th edition of the European Championship will be played in the UK co-hosted by England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For the first time, these many countries will host the Euros. Among them, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales are having Euro matches on their soil for the first time. However, the nations are not automatically qualified for the competition as UEFA rules guarantee it for up to two host associations. So their qualification is yet to be decided by the governing body. The tournament is expected to be held from 9 June to 9 July 2028 with 10 venues selected across nine host cities. Spain won the previous edition to secure a fourth title and a third in five editions.
