Real Madrid won the Club World Cup in its current format last year — the new version could include 12 leading European clubs

A controversial plan for a global club competition backed by Saudi money is set to be revived by Fifa this week.

It is understood that proposals for a 24-team Club World Cup will be discussed at Fifa’s council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday and Friday. The meeting will focus attention on the close links between Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, and Saudi Arabia. Fifa had shelved talks on the proposal but it is back on the agenda, as well as a proposed global Nations League, run along similar lines as Uefa’s competition, which started this season.

A consortium led by Japan’s SoftBank and backed financially by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has invested $45 billion (about £34.7 billion) in SoftBank, and the United