Major FIFA Club World Cup change announced with Manchester City impacted | OneFootball

Manchester City are set to be impacted by changes to semi-automated technology which will be trialled at the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup.

Pep Guardiola’s side travel to Saudi Arabia to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup later this month, with Manchester City entering the tournament at the semi-final stages, as a result of winning the UEFA Champions League in June.

Manchester City will play either Urawa Reds or Club Leon on Tuesday 19th December at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, with the Sky Blues featuring in the competition for the first time in the club’s history.

The tournament starts on Tuesday 12th December, and recent Club World Cup winners include Real Madrid, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Guardiola has also won the competition on three previous occasions; twice with Barcelona, and once with Bayern Munich.

As well as featuring at the FIFA Club World Cup in the Middle East this month, Manchester City’s Champions League triumph in Istanbul also secured qualification to the expanded 32-team edition, taking place in the United States in 2025.

This month’s tournament sees the winners of the UEFA Champions League, Oceania Champions League, Asian Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League, African Champions League, Copa Libertadores, and Saudi Arabian National League all compete against one another.

The treble-winners will be part of an IFAB trial when competing at the Club World Cup, with football lawmakers set to use the latest enhancement of semi-automated technology for the first time.

Dale Johnson reports that in a significant change to current guidance, when a player is more than 50cm offside, the Assistant Referee will be quickly notified, in an attempt to stop situations when a player is well offside but the flag isn’t raised until the end of the move.

Semi-automated offside technology is currently used in the Champions League however is yet to be enrolled in the Premier League.

Manchester City will travel to Saudi Arabia after matches against Luton Town, Red Star Belgrade and Crystal Palace, with their Premier League clash against Brentford postponed as a result of Club World Cup participation.