LAUSANNE – The world’s best football clubs will discover their group-stage opponents for the inaugural 32-club Fifa Club World Cup at the draw on Dec 5 in Miami.
The date was highly anticipated as many questions still surround this competition, whose revenues and benefits for the clubs remain a mystery – its TV broadcasters are not yet known and only one sponsor has been announced: Chinese electronics manufacturer Hisense.
The draw will determine the eight groups of four teams who will compete at the tournament in the United States from June 15 to July 13, 2025.
The 16 clubs that finish in the top two places in each group will qualify for the knockout phase, which does not have a match for third place.
The last edition of the Club World Cup featured seven teams, but the new version will be considerably bigger with 32 sides including European giants Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich.
The expanded tournament has come under fire for the extra workload it will place on players and football’s governing body Fifa is yet to announce any broadcast deals.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino recently announced that Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami will open the club competition at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, on June 15.
It was a controversial decision to award the team a backdoor route into the Club World Cup, but it has proved prescient after Messi’s team were stunned by Atlanta United in the Major League Soccer (MLS) play-offs.
Miami finished the season as runaway leaders of the Eastern Conference, but on Nov 9 were shocked 3-2 at home by Atlanta – who had scraped in via a ninth-placed finish 34 points adrift – in the deciding third play-off game.
Messi scored for Miami but Bartosz Slisz headed the winner in the 76th minute to complete the upset.
However, the league’s glamour team will still take a slot in the Club World Cup after Fifa awarded them the penultimate spot on the back of them winning the Supporters’ Shield for finishing top of the MLS standings after the regular season.
“You have shown that in the United States, you are consistently the best club on the field of play,” Infantino said at the time.
“Therefore, I am proud to announce that as one of the best clubs in the world, you are deserved participants in the new Fifa Club World Cup as the host club representing the United States.”
Fifa was desperate to have Messi, the world’s most famous player, at its new tournament.
The list of the participating clubs has not been finalised as the Nov 30 Copa Libertadores final between Atletico Mineiro and Botafogo will decide the last qualifier. 
Fifa plans to hold the expanded tournament every four years.
AFP, REUTERS
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MCI (P) 066/10/2023. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No. 202120748H. Copyright © 2024 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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