The FIFA Club World Cup, formerly known as the FIFA Club World Championship, is a football competition contested between the champion clubs from all 6 continental confederations, although, since 2007, the champions of Oceania must play a qualifying play-off against the champion club of the host country.
The first competition took place in Brazil in January 2000. It was intended by FIFA to be a replacement for the Intercontinental Cup (also known as the Toyota Cup), which was contested annually in Tokyo, Japan by the champions of Europe and South America.
The second edition was penciled in for Spain in 2001, to feature 12 teams. This was canceled owing to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL. It was then intended to hold the event in 2003, but this also failed to happen. FIFA eventually agreed terms with the Toyota Cup to merge the two competitions, with the first installment of the relaunched Club World Championship held in Japan between December 11 and December 18 2005.
Japan has hosted the yearly competition since, but open bidding processes for hosting it will begin with the 2009 edition. . Australia and the UAE have presented bids for the 2009 and 2010 FIFA Club World Cup . Portugal, after initially putting forward a bid, decided the withdrew its candidacy.
In February 2008, FIFA introduced a "Club World Champion badge", featuring an image of the trophy, which the reigning champion is entitled to display on its kit until the final of the next championship. Initially, all four previous champions can wear the badge until the 2008 final.
The fifth-place match, dropped for the 2007 edition, will be reintroduced for the 2008 edition. The reintroduction of the match for fifth place has also prompted an increase in prize money by USD $500,000 to a total of USD $16.5 million. The winners will take away $5 million, second-placed team receives $4 million, the third-placed team $2.5 million, the fourth-placed team $2 million, the fifth-placed team $1.5 million, the sixth-placed team $1 million and the seventh-placed team will receive $500,000.
