Technical Study Group preview: FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2022

After their national team's scintillating journey at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, Morocco turn host for the FIFA Club World Cup 2022™. This tournament sees the top clubs from each of the football confederations compete for the honour of being crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions.

• Al Ahly SC (Egypt) – CAF Champions League Runners-Up

• Al Hilal SFC (Saudi Arabia) – AFC Champions

• Auckland City FC (New Zealand) – OFC Champions 

• Flamengo (Brazil) – Copa Libertadores Champions

• Real Madrid CF (Spain) – UEFA Champions

• Seattle Sounders FC (USA) – CONCACAF Champions

• Wydad AC (Morocco) – CAF Champions

Under the stewardship of FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, Arsène Wenger, our Technical Study Group (TSG) is on site in Tangier to observe, analyse and report on all the competition's games. The TSG's team on the ground in Morocco consists of:

Technical Experts 

• Jürgen Klinsmann - Technical Expert 

• Cha Du-Ri – Technical Expert 

• Pascal Zuberbühler – Technical Expert (GK) 

Performance Analysts / Data Science 

• Harry Lowe – Football Performance Analysis Lead 

• Elliott Stonell – Football Performance Analyst 

Football Content 

• Lisa Fallon – Football Content Tournament Lead 

Project Lead 

• Ulf Schott – Head of High Performance 

Jürgen Klinsmann won the FIFA World Cup as a player with West Germany in 1990 and is a former head coach of his national team and the USA. Having attended the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Klinsmann is interested to see what trends from the international tournament are emerging in club competitions.

"First of all, it will be emotional to see this competition being played in Morocco, especially after the World Cup and to see their club football. Wydad AC will get huge support from the Morocco fans and I am very interested to see their style of play and how the domestic game is. 

"It will also be very interesting to see if what we saw in the World Cup will be evident in the Club World Cup: if the clubs from Asia and Africa can progress further than before. I'm also interested to see Seattle Sounders from the USA because they have developed in the last 15 years in a very progressive and strategic way. 

"They've set up a very good academy, use technology, have a very modern scouting team with high use of data, and have a very exciting player in Nicolás Lodeiro from Uruguay. He is an authentic No. 10. I tried to sign him when I was in Germany so I am really looking forward to seeing him play," added Klinsmann.

"We also get to see two of the biggest club in the world and that's exciting. South America and Europe battling to be the best. Flamengo are an absolute powerhouse in world football, like Real Madrid, but other challengers will be strong. I also think Al Hilal players will have more confidence coming out of the World Cup so really anything is possible." 

Cha Du-Ri represented Korea Republic 76 times, playing at two FIFA World Cups, including their historic run to the semi-finals in 2002. Having attended December's tournament in Qatar, he is interested to see if there could be a surprise at this instalment of the FIFA Club World Cup.  

"It will be great to have the opportunity to watch the best teams from each continent so soon after the World Cup. At that competition, Morocco's national team showed that anything is possible. People here love football and I think we will have great atmospheres at the games.

"Of course, Real Madrid and Flamengo are the two favourites, and they could renew the rivalry of Europe and South America in the final, but I'm really interested to see Al Hilal, particularly after how well the Asian teams performed in Qatar. Australia, Japan, Korea Republic all qualified for the last 16 and of course Saudi Arabia caused one of the biggest shocks in tournament, beating Argentina in their opening group match," he explained.

"From a technical point of view, I'm curious to see how teams will create chances. In Qatar, we saw a lot of wide area attacking play because central space was so protected by teams in their defensive phases. I'm interested to see if this trend transfers to the club competition." 

Zuberbühler is FIFA's Senior Football Expert and has a specialist interest in goalkeeping. Capped 51 times by Switzerland, 'Zubi' is the first, and only, goalkeeper to be knocked out of a FIFA World Cup without conceding a goal. After observing the World Cup in Qatar, he is hoping to see the high standards of goalkeeping in that tournament replicated in Morocco.

"It's so positive to have the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco so soon after their incredible performances in Qatar. I expect this to be a very competitive tournament because the standard of the teams is really improving. This is clear. 

"We saw Al Ahly and Al Hilal in the Club World Cup last year and they were very impressive. I'm very interested to see Al Ahly because my former team-mate, Marcel Koller, is now the head coach. We played together at Grasshoppers, I was a young player and he was the captain. His assistant coach is Harald Gämperle who I also played with in the Swiss national team. 

"There are some fantastic goalkeepers in this tournament. Mohamed El Shanawy (Al Ahly) is world class, and it will be great to see Thibaut Courtois for Real Madrid after seeing him play for Belgium at the World Cup. The standard of goalkeeping at that competition was so high, we saw it technically and in the data that emerged from the work of our extensive performance analysis team so it will be very interesting to see if there are correlations with the goalkeeping performances we see in this competition," explained Zuberbühler.

"Will we see the goalkeepers involved in the build-ups? Will the playing styles be more varied, will see more long balls starting the play? I am so interested to see it all."

The FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2022 kicks off on February 1^st as Al Ahly FC take on Auckland City in the Tangier Stadium.