Arsenal will compete in the first-ever Women’s Champions Cup in January.
The new six-team competition was announced by Fifa in March, along with the introduction of a 16-team Women’s Club World Cup.
Fifa are introducing the global competition in an attempt to help clubs maximise commercial opportunities.
The Women’s Champions Cup will run annually, except in years involving the Women’s Club World Cup – another new Fifa competition that will take place every four years and be held for the first time in 2028.
When the Champions Cup was first announced, Fifa president Gianni Infantino said: “Women’s football has reached new heights at national team level and now it’s time for global competitions that showcase the best clubs from around the world.”
The Women’s Champions Cup will bring together the champions of the different continental competitions, similar to the old format of the men’s Club World Cup.
The six continental confederations are:
-
Uefa (Europe)
-
Caf (Africa)
-
AFC (Asia)
-
Concacaf (North America, Central America and Caribbean)
-
Conmebol (South America)
-
OFC (Oceania)
The next two editions of the Champions Cup will happen in 2027 and 2029, with the Club World Cup starting in between.
Seedings for the second year of the Champions Cup will be based on performance in the 2026 edition.
Arsenal will be Europe’s representatives in the tournament after they won the Women’s Champions League last season.
The winner of round two – Morocco’s AS FAR – will be the Gunners’ opponents in January’s semi-finals.
The other semi-final will be contested between Brazilian side Corinthians – the Copa Libertadores champions – and New York-based Gotham FC, who won the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup in May.
Auckland Utd FC and Wuhan Jiangda WFC have already been knocked out of the competition.
Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium, which holds around 17,000 fans, will host the two semi-finals on Wednesday, 28 January. The first sees Gotham FC play Corinthians (12:30 GMT) followed by Arsenal v AS FAR (18:00).
The final (18:00) and third-place play-off (14:45) will be played at the 60,704-capacity Emirates Stadium – Arsenal’s home ground for their WSL matches – on Sunday, 1 February.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.
Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.
We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.
The team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and pundits.
We will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world’s biggest sporting events.
Our coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio.
Send us your questions
