[1] It was supposed to be the second edition of the FIFA Club World Championship, after the first edition in 2000, but was cancelled owing to a combination of factors such as the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL.

[2][3][4] FIFA had originally planned to postpone the tournament until 2003.

[5] The FIFA Executive Committee appointed Spain as tournament hosts on 3 August 2000 during their meeting in Zürich, Switzerland.

[6][7] The clubs invited to the 2001 tournament were:[8] Notes Matches were to be played in Madrid, A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela.

[1] The group stage draw was held on 6 March 2001 at the Congress Centre in A Coruña;[9] however, on 18 May 2001, FIFA confirmed that the tournament had been cancelled.