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IFA has announced the Club World Cup has been postponed from December this year to February 2021 in Qatar due to COVID-19.

FIFA said the move was due to COVID-19 affecting the finish date of continental championships around the world, which traditionally act as pre-cursors to the event.

The 2020 Club World Cup line-up will now not be finalised until the completion of the Copa Libertadores final in late January 2021, with European champions Bayern Munich and Qatari champions Al-Duhail the only two confirmed clubs at this point.

FIFA were originally planning to launch the first 24-team version of the Club World Cup, which has traditionally been a seven-team event, in China in June 2021, but those plans have now been put on hold due to COVID-19.

In a statement, FIFA said: “As a result, the FIFA Club World Cup 2020 will now be held from 1 to 11 February 2021, taking place in Qatar as per the original host appointment by the FIFA Council in June 2019.”

“In line with FIFA’s International Match Protocol, FIFA and the host country will provide the required safeguards for the health and safety of all involved,” the statement said.

Alongside this announcement, FIFA announced the women’s Under-20 and Under-17 2020 World Cups, which were already postponed until 2021, have now been cancelled.

FIFA said the decision to cancel was made “after careful consideration of the feedback received by the stakeholders (including the host member associations, participating member associations and confederations) combined with the inability to further postpone these tournaments.”

As a result of the cancellation, FIFA has confirmed the hosting rights for the 2022 editions of the competitions will be offered to the countries that were due to host the 2020 editions, meaning Costa Rica will host the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup 2022 and India will host the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022.