Real Madrid and manager Carlo Ancelotti have clarified the Champions League winners will compete at next year’s Club World Cup despite the Italian earlier saying the club would “refuse the invitation”. Ancelotti’s comment appeared in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Giornale, external which was released on Monday.
But the Italian, 65, later posted on social media to say his words were “not interpreted in the way I intended”. He added: “Nothing could be further from my interest than to reject the possibility of playing in a tournament that I consider could be a great opportunity to continue fighting for big titles with Real Madrid.” Real are one of 12 European teams already qualified for the 32-team Fifa tournament to be held in the USA between 15 June and 13 July 2025.
In a statement, the La Liga champions said: “Real Madrid would like to announce that at no time has there been any question regarding our participation in the new Club World Cup to be organised by Fifa in the coming 2024/2025 season. “Our club will therefore take part, as planned, in this official competition and we are proud and excited to be involved in it and we will once again inspire our millions of fans all over the world with another trophy.”
In the interview with Il Giornale, Ancelotti was quoted as saying: “FIFA can forget it, footballers and clubs will not participate in that tournament. “A single Real Madrid match is worth 20 million and Fifa wants to give us that amount for the whole cup. Negative. Like us, other clubs will refuse the invitation.” The European Club Association (ECA) had distanced itself from Ancelotti’s interview remarks.
