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2025 FIFA Club World Cup

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, officially the Mundial de Clubes FIFA 25, is the planned 21st edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, an international club soccer competition organized by FIFA. The tournament is scheduled to be played in the United States from June 15 to July 13, 2025. It is planned to be the first under an expanded format with 32 teams, including the winners of the four previous continental championships.

Manchester City is the defending champion.

Background and format

Since its return from hiatus in 2005, the FIFA Club World Cup had been held annually in December and limited to the winners of continental club competitions. As early as late 2016, FIFA president Gianni Infantino suggested expanding the Club World Cup to 32 teams beginning in 2019 and rescheduling it to June/July to be more balanced and more attractive to broadcasters and sponsors. In late 2017, FIFA discussed proposals to expand the competition to 24 teams and have it be played every four years by 2021, replacing the FIFA Confederations Cup. The expanded format and schedule of Club World Cup, to be played in June and July 2021, was confirmed at the March 2019 FIFA Council meeting in Miami. China was appointed as host in October 2019, but the 2021 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On June 23, 2023, FIFA confirmed that the United States will host the 2025 tournament as a prelude to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The host cities for the tournament remain undecided. 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 format will be the same that was used in the FIFA World Cup between 1998 and 2022, with the exception of a third-place play-off.

In January 2024, it was reported that the tournament would take place on the East Coast to be closer to European broadcasters and viewers while also avoiding conflict with the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, which will also take place primarily in the United States around the same time but on the West Coast.

Slot allocation

On February 14, 2023, the FIFA Council approved the slot allocation for the 2025 tournament based on a "set of objective metrics and criteria". UEFA was awarded the most slots with twelve, while CONMEBOL was given the second most with six. The AFC, CAF, and CONCACAF were all given four slots, while the OFC and the host association were given one slot each. On March 14, 2023, the FIFA Council approved the key principles of the access list for the tournament. The principles are as follows, considering competitions completed during a four-year period from 2021 to 2024:

CONMEBOL and UEFA (more than four slots): access for the winners of the confederation's top club competition between 2021 and 2024, with additional teams to be determined by a club ranking of the four-year period.
AFC, CAF, and CONCACAF (four slots each): access for the winners of the confederation's top club competition between 2021 and 2024.
OFC (one slot): access for the highest-ranked club among the winners of the confederation's top club competition between 2021 and 2024.
Host country (one slot): To be determined at a later stage.

If a club wins two or more seasons of its confederation's top club competition, additional teams will be determined by a club ranking of the four-year period. A restriction of two clubs per association will be applied, with an exception for champion clubs if more than two clubs from the same association win their confederation's top club competition. The calculation method for the four-year club rankings within each confederation will be based on sporting criteria during seasons completed between 2021 and 2024, and will be finalized after consultation with confederations and stakeholders.

Qualified teams

The following teams have qualified for the tournament:

Teams still in contention for qualification through four-year confederations rankings

Format

A restriction of two clubs per association is applied on teams eligible for qualifications via ranking.
For confederations other than Europe, the teams were ranked according to match result, excluding extra time (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss); and stage qualifications (3 points for each round reached, starting at the group stage). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

Best competition result
The best most recent result
Goal difference
Goals scored

Source:

Legend

Criticism

The proposed expansion was criticized by FIFPRO, a global union of professional players, as well as the World Leagues Forum, which represents professional leagues; both organizations raised concerns about player welfare due to the added fixtures in an already congested playing calendar. The Spanish top division league, La Liga, also criticized the plan and said in a statement that it would consider legal action to block the expansion. Many clubs and national federations have opposed its scheduling, accusing FIFA of prioritizing money over the health of the players.

The addition of the annual FIFA Intercontinental Cup tournament was also criticized for creating an overload of competitions that would further put the health of the players at risk. In May 2024, FIFPRO and the World Leagues Forum published a letter they sent to FIFA that calls on a rescheduling of the tournament to give players more time to rest between major competitions, which have also seen expansions. The organizations also stated in the letter that they would advise member clubs to seek legal action or other options in the event that schedule congestion is not addressed.