Manchester City stripped of 2023 trophy by FIFA as competition and title renamed | OneFootball

One of the major triumphs of Pep Guardiola’s haul with Manchester City in 2023 has now been stripped from the club and handed a new name, as per FIFA.

The decision arrives following a sweeping rebrand and overhaul to FIFA’s global club competition structure, with major implications for how clubs – including Manchester City – are recognised in football’s official record books.

The global governing body of the sport confirmed that it has now reclassified the competition widely known as the FIFA Club World Cup, effectively resetting the timeline for its official championship lineage.

City, who lifted the 2023 title following a dominant campaign that included a 4-0 Final victory over Fluminense in Saudi Arabia, will now be recognised under a different name, no longer represented as a Club World Cup title.

FIFA’s decision to rebrand and reformat the competition, expanding it into a 32-team tournament held every four years, has resulted in the governing body drawing a clear line between the old version of the tournament and its new iteration.

As confirmed this week, Premier League giants Chelsea have been named as the ‘first ever’ winners of the Club World Cup following their success in the United States this summer courtesy of a Final win over Paris Saint-Germain.

As such, the likes of Manchester City and all those that have won the competition in previous years prior to the tournament’s expansion will now longer have a ‘Club World Cup’ title to their honours list.

Instead, previous Club World Cup winners now known as ‘FIFA Intercontinental Champions’, which includes the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona in addition to Pep Guardiola’s Treble-winning squad of 2023.

The competition was first played in 2000 as the Club World Championship, before returning in 2005, and was played annually until 2023 under the FIFA Club World Cup title, before adopting its current 32-team format, new trophy, and branding overhaul.

The reclassification, while cosmetic, will likely provoke frustration among City supporters, particularly given the historic significance of their triumph just over 18 months ago. City’s 2023 win had added a final piece of global silverware to Pep Guardiola’s iconic Treble-winning squad and was celebrated as the pinnacle of their dominance in the modern era.

Yet under FIFA’s updated framework, that success has been effectively boxed into a separate historical bracket, removing City from the list of “Club World Cup winners” in official literature and awarding Chelsea the new distinction of being the first-ever Champions under the revamped system.

While this is unlikely to diminish the personal meaning of the 2023 victory for Pep Guardiola or his players, it does complicate the way in which achievements are now presented and remembered. It also calls into question the legacy of all past winners, who may now have to recalibrate their records and marketing materials to reflect the new title.