Joe Wright
FIFA launches its new and expanded Club World Cup in 2025.
The competition — replacing the annual, smaller Club World Cup, which traditionally features the champions of FIFA’s different confederations — will see 32 club sides compete for glory in June and July next year.
The United States will host the inaugural edition of the revamped tournament, with the draw for the group stage taking place in Miami on December 5, at which teams will learn their initial opponents. One of those will be Chelsea, who will be in Pot 2 for Thursday’s draw and could be pitted alongside the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain.
But how did Chelsea qualify for the Club World Cup when they have not been champions of England or Europe for some time? The Sporting News explains.
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Chelsea qualified for the new Club World Cup by virtue of winning the UEFA Champions League in the 2020/21 season.
Traditionally, the FIFA tournament saw the most recent champions of the different confederations compete for the trophy, alongside a guest team representing the host nation. For instance, in 2023, Manchester City took the UEFA slot, having won the Champions League at the end of the previous season.
However, with the tournament now expanded to 32 teams, FIFA expanded its qualification criteria to include each of the winners of the six confederations’ elite club competitions between 2021 and 2024. Chelsea won the 2020/21 Champions League, beating Man City 1-0 in the final, so they were awarded a place in the draw.
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Chelsea won the Club World Cup in 2021, the year in which they beat Man City in the UEFA Champions League final. It’s the only time they have lifted the FIFA club trophy.
They also reached the final in 2012, but they were defeated 1-0 by Brazilian side Corinthians in a major shock.
#OnThisDay in 2012 @Corinthians
defeated @ChelseaFC 1-0 to lift #ClubWC in Japanhttps://t.co/FYrUiBggz7 pic.twitter.com/N5EozC1ZJu
The 2025 Club World Cup group-stage draw will be streamed live on FIFA.com and FIFA+.
WATCH THE 2025 CLUB WORLD CUP DRAW ON FIFA+
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Joe Wright is a Senior Editor at Sporting News, managing global soccer and the UK team. He was previously a sub editor and writer for Goal.com before spending six years as part of the Stats Perform editorial news service, covering major global sports including football, tennis, boxing, NBA, rugby union and athletics. Joe has extensive experience covering some of the biggest events in football, including two UEFA Champions League finals, Euro 2016, the Confederations Cup 2017 and the 2018 World Cup, which included the final in Moscow.
