UAE beats off competition from Australia to host Club World Cup - Sport - Evening Standard
       

UAE beats off competition from Australia to host Club World Cup

FIFA'S Club World Cup will be moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2009 and 2010, it was announced today.

The tournament brings together the club champions of the six confederations and has been played in Japan for the last four years, as it will be again in December.

But FIFA have decided on a two-year break from the Far East and the UAE beat a bid from Australia to act as host.

Paolo Maldini and players of AC Milan celebrate after winning the Club World Cup final against Boca Juniors and AC Milan

Japan were given some consolation for their loss when they awarded the tournament in 2011 and 2012 while Australia, which had been hoping to use the event to boost their chances of staging the World Cup in 2018, were overlooked altogether.

Manchester United will be playing in this year's event after they won the Champions League last week to give Sir Alex Ferguson his second title in the competition.

"Australia presented an exceptional bid but one of the reasons we could not consider Australia was because of time constraints," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "But I can assure Australia that when bidding for the World Cup comes around, distances will not come into consideration."

The FIFA executive committee also announced they had awarded the 2010 women's Under-17 World Cup to Trinidad and Tobago, the 2011 men's Under-17 World Cup to Mexico and the 2011 Under-20 World Cup to Colombia.

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