Explained: FIFA expand Club World Cup from 2025 - here's how it will work

Ahead of the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, FIFA announced details regarding the expanded 32-team tournament scheduled to be held in United States in 2025. It has been rebranded as Mundial de Clubes FIFA (FIFA Club World Cup in Spanish).

“Clubs play a fundamental role in world football, and the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 will be a major milestone in providing clubs from all confederations with a fitting stage on which to shine at the highest level of the game,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

“This will be an open competition based on sporting merit that will play a key role as part of our efforts to make football truly global.”

FIFA also unveiled an annual tournament called the Coupe Intercontinentale de la FIFA (Intercontinental Cup) which will be played from 2024 between the UEFA Champions League winners and the winner of a playoff between champions from the other confederations. It has been scheduled for December 2024.

What is the format for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup?

The 32 teams will be spread across eight groups with two sides progressing from each pool to a last-16 knockout round. The group stage will be a single game round robin format. There will be no third place playoff.

FIFA intends to reward clubs with best form over the most recent four seasons, starting from the group stage of the confederation’s premier club competition and incentivising the result of every game in the tournament. It then came up with the following formula:

3 points for a win
1 point for a draw
3 points for progress to each stage of the competition

For UEFA (European football), an exception has been made since it already follows a coefficient system. The system to be followed is as follows:

2 points for a win
1 point for a draw
4 points for qualification for the group stage
5 points for qualification for the round of 16
1 point for progress to each stage of the competition thereafter

Which teams have qualified for 2025 FIFA Club World Cup?

🤔 Who has qualified for the new FIFA Club World Cup in 2025? Who is still in the hunt for a place? We break it down...🧵

➡️ The OFC will be represented by Auckland City FC

— FIFA (@FIFAcom) December 17, 2023

After running through the teams’ results over the last four years, the following teams have qualified from respective continents.

Africa (4 teams): Al Ahly, Wydad and two more to be confirmed.

Asia (4 teams): Al Hilal, Urawa Red and two more to be confirmed.

Europe (12 teams): Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter Milan, Porto, Benfica and four more to be confirmed.

North, Central America & Caribbean (4 teams): Monterrey, Seattle Sounders, Club Leon, one more to be confirmed.

Oceania (1 team): Auckland City

South America (6 teams): Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense, three more to be confirmed.

When will the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup take place?

The tournament will take place from 15 June to 13 July in the United States.

What has the reaction been?

Players’ union FIFPRO criticised the announcement.

“The FIFA Council’s decision today to schedule the first edition of the 32-team FIFA Club World Cup between June 15 and July 13 without implementing further player workload safeguards demonstrates a lack of consideration for the mental and physical health of participating players, as well as a disregard for their personal and family lives,” it said in a statement.

It called for discussions to introduce player health and safety regulations as a “matter of urgency.”

“The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game is the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance, and risks to career longevity,” the statement said. “They have repeatedly voiced concerns about mounting workload to their national player unions.”

Meanwhile, FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger said in a release: “I accept that the football calendar is a busy one, but this is a competition that is going to take place every four years and of course the rest period during the competition and afterwards has to be respected.

“The welfare of the players in the last 20 years has increased dramatically as well, when you look at injury prevention, recovery work, nutrition and advances in medical technology. It is unrecognisable from what it used to be.”

The former Arsenal manager justified FIFA’s decision by explaining that “there’s logic behind the thinking from clubs and FIFA to organise a Club World Cup that is similar in format to the nations World Cup”.

“It’s important that we make football really global and this creates a chance for other clubs to progress, this is the real target. It will give more opportunities to more players all over the world to compete at the highest level.”