The US will host the 2025 Club World Cup, with 32 teams
GENEVA –
The United States will host the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the first time the FIFA tournament will feature 32 teams.
Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea have already earned spots as recent Champions League winners for the expanded tournament line-up that will put stadiums and operations to the test a year before the 2026 World Cup.
The United States is co-hosting the men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico, and FIFA could give some more club World Cup matches to those countries.
The FIFA Club World Cup will take place in June-July 2025. The United States was chosen as host on Friday during an online meeting of the FIFA Council.
FIFA praised “the position of the United States as a proven leader in hosting global events and for allowing FIFA to maximize synergy with the implementation of the 2026 tournament”.
The Seattle Sounders are also in the lineup for the Club World Cup as the 2022 champions of the North American soccer region CONCACAF. The Americans should get a new listing as host country.
Famous European teams have visited the United States for pre-season friendlies for years, but the expanded club tournament gives fans a rare chance to see 12 of them play competitive matches.
FIFA said in March that the basic qualification path for clubs was to win a continental championship in one of four years from 2021 to 2024 in the five major confederations: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
Europe with 12 teams and South America with six are the only continents with more than four entries. Additional places are to be awarded based on team rankings based on results over a four-year period in continental competitions.
The current seven-team continental champions club world cup played each season has little appeal and FIFA has long wanted to host a major tournament every four years.
This expanded version in 2025 is a huge commercial opportunity for FIFA to test new broadcasting models and attract new sponsors, funding hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money for the clubs.
The influential European Club Association said in March it hoped to hold talks with FIFA over the management of commercial rights.
The format for a World Cup for club teams of approximately three weeks has yet to be determined. One option is to guarantee the 32 teams at least three matches, each playing in eight groups of four. The eight group winners were then allowed to advance to the quarter-finals. That would make for a 56-game tournament if a third-place game was included.
The current format of the annual Club World Cup will continue with a final edition scheduled for December in Saudi Arabia.
Reviving the Club World Cup was a priority for FIFA President Gianni Infantino when he was elected in 2016, but his first project plan was stalled. A Saudi Arabia-linked $25 billion deal with Japanese technology investor SoftBank sparked anger from European football officials who viewed it as secretive and an overreach of FIFA.
FIFA agreed in 2019 on a 24-team event to start in China in June 2021, but was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic before commercial details were confirmed.
FIFA came back with a new plan for the Club World Cup after the Super League project led by an elite group of clubs quickly failed in April 2021 and caused great unrest at European football organization UEFA.
Other teams that have already qualified for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup are: Palmeiras (Brazil), Flamengo (Brazil), Monterrey (Mexico), Leon (Mexico), Al-Ahly (Egypt), Wydad Casablanca (Morocco), Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan). ) and Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia).
