The scheduling of the inaugural Women's Club World Cup could be "catastrophic", says the Women's Super League.
FIFA has announced the tournament will take place from January 5-30, 2028, with the league writing formally to the world governing body to raise "significant concern" over what the schedule will mean for the domestic football calendar and player welfare.
"The timing of that tournament causes us significant concern," a WSL spokesperson said.
"At best, it is inconvenient and is going to cause real scheduling issues for us. At worst, it's catastrophic for the game in this country, for our commercial programme and more importantly, for the welfare of our players."
The WSL says the scheduling of the global 16-team tournament could impact up to five match rounds of the league and fixtures could be moved to midweek.
The tournament taking place in the middle of the 2027/28 season would be bookended by a World Cup and the Olympics.
"If that tournament is also in a different time zone and there needs to be travel and then rest, recovery and training ahead of a tournament and the same back the other way, we could be moving a lot of fixtures," a WSL spokesperson added.
"We know Arsenal will participate as current holders of the Champions League. Based on the current coefficient, if they use that, Chelsea would probably qualify. But there could be more than two of our teams."
Your Site News has been told the WSL is not against the concept of a Club World Cup and wants to give clubs and players the opportunity to compete at the highest level, but would rather it be played in the summer during a fallow year.
A WSL spokesperson also added that there were concerns among clubs and players about the schedule.
Last year, FIFA announced the inaugural Women's Champions Cup, which takes place this month.
The tournament unites the six continental champions, who compete for the title in seasons where the Women's Club World Cup is not held, and following two early round fixtures, four sides remain for the showcase event in London.
Your Site will exclusively broadcast all matches, kicking off with Gotham FC vs SC Corinthians (12.30pm) and Arsenal Women vs ASFAR (6pm), with both semi-finals being held at Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium on Wednesday, January 28.
The third-place play-off (2.45pm) and final (6pm) will then be hosted at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium four days later on Sunday, February 1.
