This list includes the official (de jure)world champion football clubs recognized by FIFA. The official competitions that grant this world title are the Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004), the FIFA Club World Cup (2000, 2005–present), and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup (2024–present).
The Intercontinental Cup, also known as the European/South American Cup, was an official international football competition endorsed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL), [1] [2] [3] contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the European Champions' Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League), and the South American Copa Libertadores. The competition was played by representative clubs of most developed continents in the football world; has since been replaced by the FIFA Club World Cup. All editions were official UEFA and CONMEBOL competitions, [4] [5] and indirectly also of FIFA. [6] [7] [8] [9]
From its formation in 1960 to 1979, the competition was contested over a two-legged tie, with a playoff if necessary until 1968, and penalty kicks later. During the 1970s, European participation in the Intercontinental Cup became a running question due to controversial events in the 1969 final, [10] and some European Champions Club' winner teams withdrew. [11] From 1980 until 2004, the competition was contested over a single match held in Japan and sponsored by multinational automaker Toyota, which offered a secondary trophy, the Toyota Cup. [12]
Throughout the history of football, various attempts have been made to organise a tournament that identifies "the best club team in the world" – such as the Football World Championship, the Lipton Trophy, the Pequeña Copa del Mundo - due to FIFA's lack of interest or inability to organise club competitions. [13] The closest thing that happened was the 1957 Tournoi de Paris, which brought together the only continental champions of the time and which served as inspiration for the Intercontinental Cup. The Intercontinental Cup is considered by FIFA as the official predecessor [14] [6] to the FIFA Club World Cup, which was held for the first time in 2000. [15]
All the winning teams were regarded by worldwide mass media and the football community, FIFA included (as News Center productions and not cataloged on the FIFA website as official entity documents), [16] as "world champions" de facto. [17] [18] [19] [20] On 27 October 2017, the FIFA Council, while not promoting statistical unification between the Intercontinental Cup and the Club World Cup, in respect to the history of the two tournaments [21] (which merged in 2005), [22] has officialised ( de jure ) the title of the Intercontinental Cup, recognising all the winners as official club world champions, [23] [24] [25] [26] with the same title of the FIFA Club World Cup winners, or "FIFA Club World Champions". [27] [24] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]
FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament officially assigns the world title. [34] The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. [35] Since 2005, the competition has been held every year, and has been hosted by Brazil, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The FIFA Club World Cup's prestige is perceived quite differently in different parts of the football world; while it is widely regarded as the most distinguished club-level trophy in South America, [36] [37] it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe compared to the UEFA Champions League and commonly lacks recognition as a high-ranking contest. [38] [39]
The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in 2000. but the failure of ISL caused FIFA to discontinue the tournament and cancel the following year competition to be held in Spain. This first failed installment ran parallel with the Intercontinental Cup. FIFA finally managed to buy the prestigious Japanese event and in 2005,[ citation needed ] after the Intercontinental Cup's last edition, that competition was merged with FIFA and a new trophy replaced the Intercontinental Cup Trophy as well as the Toyota Cup. In 2006, the tournament took its current name.
The format used between 2007 and 2023 involves seven teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks; the winners of that year's AFC Champions League (Asia), CAF Champions League (Africa), CONCACAF Champions League (North America), Copa Libertadores (South America), OFC Champions League (Oceania) and UEFA Champions League (Europe), along with the host nation's national champions, participate in a straight knock-out tournament. The host nation's national champions dispute a play-off against the Oceania champions, from which the winner joins the champions of Asia, Africa, and North America at the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go on to face the European and South American champions, who enter the semi-final stage, for a place in the final. In Europe the tournament is almost ignored by the mass media, also because of its sporting level, considered inferior to the Intercontinental Cup, [40] indeed when the sides used to meet in a one-off game in Japan (and even before), this was still a fair fight. The opening up of the global market in football has changed the balance. These days the best South Americans (and the stars from all the other continents) are usually playing in Europe. [41] [42]
Panathinaikos replaced the champions 
Ajax who declined to participate. [54] 
Juventus replaced the champions Ajax who declined to contest the meeting in South America, officially for financial reasons. [88] [56] 
Atlético Madrid replaced the champions 
Bayern Munich who declined to participate. [57] Borussia Mönchengladbach replaced the champions 
Liverpool who declined to participate. [60] 
Malmö FF replaced the champions Nottingham Forest who declined to participate. [61] Milan replaced the champions 
Marseille who were suspended due to a match fixing and bribery scandal. [75] | † | Match was won after extra time | ||
| ‡ | Match was won via a penalty shoot-out | ||
| † | Match was won after extra time | ||
| ‡ | Match was won via a penalty shoot-out | ||
| Edition | Season | Hosts | Champions | Score | Runners-up | Venue | Location | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2024 |  Qatar |  Real Madrid | 3–0 |  Pachuca | Lusail Stadium | Lusail, Qatar | [131] |
In synthesis FIFA has two types of world champions Intercontinental Cup and those deriving from the Club World Cup (the two competitions, albeit different, confer the same title, that of FIFA club world champions) [132] [133] [134] so in accordance to what is officially communicated by FIFA, the total count of official [135] [6] [136] [133] world titles is as follows: [137] [138] [139] [140] [141] [142] [134] [132]
| IC | Intercontinental Cup |
| CWC | FIFA Club World Cup |
| FIC | FIFA Intercontinental Cup |
| Country | IC | CWC | FIC | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | 4 | 8 | 1 | 13 |
 Brazil | 6 | 4 | 0 | 10 |
 Argentina | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Italy | 7 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
 Uruguay | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Germany | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| England | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
 Portugal | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
 Paraguay | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Serbia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Confederation | IC | CWC | FIC | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA | 21 | 16 | 1 | 38 |
| CONMEBOL | 22 | 4 | 0 | 26 |
The Intercontinental Cup, officially the European/South American Cup and known from 1980 as the Toyota Cup for sponsorship reasons, was an international football competition endorsed by UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL, contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the South American Copa Libertadores. It ran from 1960 to 2004, when it was succeeded by the FIFA Club World Cup, although they both ran concurrently in 2000.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held from 2001 to 2004 due to a combination of factors in the cancelled 2001 tournament, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), but in 2005 it changed to an annual competition through 2023. Following the 2023 edition, the tournament was revamped to a quadrennial competition starting in 2025. Views differ as to the cup's prestige: it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe, and is the object of heated debate in South America.
The 1999 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match played on 30 November 1999 between Manchester United, winners of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, and Palmeiras, winners of the 1999 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the neutral venue of the National Stadium in Tokyo in front of 53,372 spectators.
The 2007 FIFA Club World Cup final took place at the Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan on 16 December 2007.
The 2003 Intercontinental Cup was the 42nd Intercontinental Cup, an annual association football match contested by the winners of the previous season's UEFA Champions League and Copa Libertadores competitions. The match was played on 14 December 2003 between Boca Juniors of Argentina, winners of the 2003 Copa Libertadores and AC Milan of Italy, winners of the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League. The match was played at the neutral venue of the International Stadium Yokohama in Yokohama, in front of 70,000 fans. Matías Donnet was named as man of the match.
The 2004 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match that took place on 12 December 2004 between Porto of Portugal, winners of the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, and Once Caldas of Colombia, winners of the 2004 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the International Stadium in Yokohama, Japan in front of 45,748 fans and ended 0–0 after extra time, where Porto eventually won 8–7 in the penalty shoot-out. Maniche of Porto, despite being the only Porto player to miss his penalty kick, was named as man of the match.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The championship was first contested as the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. Following a change in format which saw the FIFA Club World Championship absorb the Intercontinental Cup, it was relaunched in 2005 and took its current name the season afterwards.
The 2000 Intercontinental Cup, officially the 2000 Toyota European / South American Cup for sponsorship reasons, was an association football match played on 28 November 2000 between Real Madrid, winners of the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League, and Boca Juniors, winners of the 2000 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the neutral venue of the National Stadium in Tokyo in front of 52,511 fans. Martín Palermo was named as man of the match.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship was first contested as the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. Following a change in format which saw the FIFA Club World Championship absorb the Intercontinental Cup, it was relaunched in 2005 and took its current name the season afterwards.
The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup final was the final match of the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup, an international club association football tournament hosted by the United Arab Emirates. It was the 15th final of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions.
The 2020 FIFA Club World Cup final was the final match of the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, an international club football tournament hosted by Qatar. It was the 17th final of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised tournament between the club champions from each of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions.
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