Football
2025 Club World Cup takes place in the United States between June 15 and July 13; competition expanded from annual tournament with seven teams to 32-team tournament every four years; Man City and Chelsea among 12 European clubs taking part; Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami feature
Thursday 5 December 2024 06:44, UK
A new FIFA Club World Cup format launches next summer, with two Premier League teams – and Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami – set to learn their fate when the draw for the tournament takes place on Thursday.
The new-look Club World Cup will feature 32 teams and will be played every four years from the summer of 2025. It is an expansion of the previous version of the tournament, which took place every year and involved just seven teams from around the world.
But how does the tournament work, which teams are involved and who could face whom in the draw on December 5? Sky Sports answers your questions below…
Before its revamp for the 2025 tournament, the Club World Cup took place every year in December and was contested by the winners of continental club competitions from around the world.
For example, the winners of the UEFA Champions League would take part in the tournament every year and face off against continental counterparts from South America (CONMEBOL), Asia (AFC), Africa (CAF), North America (CONCACAF) and Oceania (OFC).
But then FIFA announced in December that the competition would be expanded to 32 club teams and would take place every four years.
To replace the annual competition, an Intercontinental Cup will be played annually and have the Champions League winner playing in the final against a team that comes through intercontinental play-offs.
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The next Club World Cup will take place over 29 days in the summer of 2025.
The tournament starts on June 15, with the final taking place on July 13.
The 2025 Club World Cup takes place in the United States across 12 stadiums:
Europe has 12 clubs in the 32-team tournament and the spaces are allocated based on performances in the Champions League over four seasons from 2020/21 up to and including this season.
For the 2025 competition, the winners of the Champions League over the last three seasons – Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City – will be joined by the best-performing sides in the tournament in the same period, with Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan qualifying through the ranking route.
The Asian Football Confederation, African Federation and the North American Federation get four teams each based on the winners and best-performing teams in their respective Champions League competitions, while the South American federation will get six teams who perform best in the Copa Libertadores.
One slot goes to one team from the Oceania Football Confederation – the best performing team in the OFC Champions League over the last four years, with the final slot going to an additional team from the host nation. Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami have taken that spot after winning the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield.
Messi has won the Club World Cup on three occasions – 2009, 2011, 2015 – but while he is set to join the likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe in the States, Cristiano Ronaldo will miss out, with Al Hilal the only Saudi Arabian side to qualify.
The tournament format works exactly the same as the FIFA World Cup, only for clubs.
The 32 teams will be divided into eight groups of four teams, with the top two teams in each group qualifying to the knockout stage.
The last-16 stage – the first single knockout round – then moves to the quarter-final, semi-final and then final. There is no third-placed play-off between the two losing semi-final teams.
The draw for the 2025 Club World Cup will take place on December 5, 2024 at 6pm.
It will take place in Miami and all 32 teams will find out their group-stage opponents.
FIFA says that the full match schedule will be finalised and published after the draw, “taking into account a range of factors including sporting and player-centric criteria, local and travelling fans and global broadcast considerations”.
The qualified teams have been allocated to four pots ahead of the draw.
FIFA states that Pot 1 consists of the four highest-ranked teams from Europe together with the four highest-ranked teams from South America, while pot 2 consists of the remaining eight teams from Europe.
Pot 3 consists of the two highest-ranked teams respectively from Asia, Africa and the North, Central America and Caribbean region, alongside South America’s two remaining clubs. Pot 4 comprises the two remaining teams respectively from Asia, Africa and the North, Central America and Caribbean region, alongside Oceania’s representative and the team representing the host country: Inter Miami.
Pot 1: Manchester City (Eng), Real Madrid (Esp), Bayern Munich (Ger), Paris Saint-Germain (Fra), Flamengo (Brz), Palmeiras (Brz), River Plate (Arg), Fluminense (Brz)
Pot 2: Chelsea (Eng), Borussia Dortmund (Ger), FC Inter Milan (Ita), Porto (Por), Atletico Madrid (Esp), Benfica (Por), Juventus (Ita), Salzburg (Aut)
Pot 3: Al Hilal (Ksa), Ulsan HD (Kor), Al Ahly (Egy), Wydad (Mar), Monterrey (Mex), Club Leon (Mex), Boca Juniors (Arg), Botafogo (Brz)
Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds (Jpn), Al Ain (Uae), Esperance de Tunis (Tun), Mamelodi Sundowns (Rsa), Pachuca (Mex), Seattle Sounders (USA), Auckland City (Nzl), Inter Miami (USA)
No group can feature more than one team from the same confederation, apart from UEFA (Europe) given that has 12 club representatives.
But clubs from the same member association cannot be grouped together, meaning there will be no Chelsea and Manchester City group pairing.
Manchester City added the Club World Cup to their trophy collection in 2023 as Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden helped them breeze to a 4-0 final win over Fluminense.
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