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What is the Women's Champions Cup and who will Arsenal play?

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[BBC]

On Wednesday, Arsenal will begin their quest to win the inaugural Women's Champions Cup.

The new six-team competition was announced by Fifa in March 2025, 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."

What is the Women's Champions Cup?

The official ball pictured prior to the Fifa Women's Champions Cup round one
The official Women's Champions Cup ball [Getty Images]

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.

What teams are involved?

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 the semi-finals.

The other game will be contested between Brazilian side Corinthians – the Copa Libertadores champions – and New York-based Gotham FC, who won the first Concacaf W Champions Cup last May.

Auckland Utd FC and Wuhan Jiangda WFC have already been knocked out of the competition.

What prize money is at stake?

The inaugural Women's Champions Cup winners will earn $2.3m (£1.7m), the biggest-ever single award in women’s club football, says its organiser Fifa.

The runners-up will earn $1m (£735,000), the losing semi-finalists will get $200,000 (£147,000), while Auckland United of New Zealand and China's Wuhan Chegu Jiangda, who both bowed out in the first round of the competition, will receive $100,000 (£73,500).

When and where will the games be played?

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.

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