Sky Italia, the Italian pay-television giant, has secured domestic rights to soccer’s upcoming 2022 FIFA Club World Cup competition.
The broadcaster will provide live coverage of all seven games of the tournament, which begins on February 1 and ends on February 11.
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In the absence of an Italian broadcast partner, last year’s 2021 Club World Cup was streamed for free on FIFA’s YouTube channel. Rights to the 2020 edition, meanwhile, were held by commercial broadcaster Mediaset, which aired the tournament on its Canale 20 channel.
Spanish giants Real Madrid will be the European representatives as the UEFA Champions League holders, while Brazil’s Flamengo will represent South America as winners of the equivalent Copa Libertadores club competition.
Flamengo and Real Madrid are the only clubs that will enter the competition at the semi-final stage and can only meet in the final.
The five other teams competing in this year’s Club World Cup are the Seattle Sounders (North America), Al Ahly (Africa), Auckland City (Oceania), Al Hilal (Asia), and Wydad Casablanca (host country representative).
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By GlobalDataFlamengo will play their semi-final on February 7 in Tangier against the winners of the clash between Wydad Casablanca and Al Hilal, who face each other on February 4.
The other semi-final will be played the following day, where Real Madrid will face either the Seattle Sounders, Al Ahly, or Auckland City.
FIFA is in the process of concluding rights deals for the Club World Cup in key markets. Earlier this week, the world soccer governing body announced an agreement with French pay-television giant Canal Plus.
An agreement was also recently struck with commercial broadcaster Globo in Brazil.
FIFA is making major efforts to grow the Club World Cup, with its president Gianni Infantino recently announcing that the competition will be expanded to 32 teams in 2025 and be played as an end-of-season tournament in the summer.
