Qatar will be hosting for the first time, the FIFA Club World Cup 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud in December 11-21, ahead of the 2022 World Cup. The 16th Club World Cup will be staged in Doha and taking place at three venues in Doha.
A FIFA organised international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The competition will feature European Champions Liverpool, Qatar Stars League champions Al-Sadd, the winners of the CONCACAF Monterrey, CAF winners Espérance ST and OFC Champions League winners Hienghène Sport, in addition to the yet-to-be-decided winners of the 2019 Copa Libertadores and AFC.
The host grounds will be the Education City Stadium, a 2022 World Cup venue which will be inaugurated during the tournament and host the Club World Cup final. The Jassim bin Hamad Stadium and the Khalifa International Stadium will also stage matches. Qatar is set to host both the 2019 and 2020 Club World Cups as part of the country’s preparations to stage the World Cup in three years’ time.
The official emblem for the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup was revealed on 18 October 2019, and the logo has been designed to reflect the cultural history of Qatar. The most striking element of the Official Emblem reimagines a football as a pearl, the Qatar’s tradition of pearl fishing, has deep cultural roots and there have been examples dating back to the Middle Ages. The latticework of the iridescent sphere is inspired by mashrabiyas, traditional architectural elements found in residences across the Middle East. The delicate screens are both decorative and functional, with the twin purpose of cooling residences and providing ornate decorative features both inside and out. In the support of the sphere, the shapes reminiscent of sweeping desert sand and accented with diacritics, a fundamental element of the Arabic alphabet. The burgundy and turquoise colors are characteristic of the country and resemble the bay of Doha.