2025 Club World Cup: FIFA confirms qualifiers, unveils new Intercontinental Cup competition
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (PANA) - FIFA says the 2025 Club World Cup will be played across 29 days in June and July that summer in the United States.
Both English Premier League’s Liverpool and Manchester United miss out on the new competition while LaLiga’s Barcelona could still qualify.
To date eight of Europe’s 12 qualifiers are known and 19 of the final 32 that will be in the US in 2025.
The FIFA Council confirmed the 15 June to 13 July, 2025, dates and qualifying criteria for the expanded 32-team Club World Cup on the sidelines of the 7-team Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
While the new Club World Cup will be held quadrennially, FIFA also released new detail of the annual FIFA club competition to be played from 2024, that will see all confederation premier club competition champions compete and conclude with a final at a neutral venue between the UEFA Champions League winners and the winners of an intercontinental play-off between clubs from the other confederations.
The official name of the new competition will be "La Coupe Intercontinentale de la FIFA."
Europe will be represented by 12 clubs while South America will have six.
Africa, Asia and North America will have four each and Oceania will have to be content with a single slot. The host nation will also get a slot.
As recent Champions League winners, Chelsea, Real Madrid Manchester City have qualified from Europe while Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain, Inter Milan, FC Porto and Benfica have earned a ticket based on the coefficient system.
Fluminense, Flamengo and Palmeiras of Brazil will represent South America as Copa Libertadores winners.
The region will see one more Libertadores winner as well as two clubs via the ranking pathway qualify for the 2025 tournament.
Al Ahy SC (Egypt) and Wydad AC (Morocco) have qualified from Africa, Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) and Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan) from Asia.
Monterrey and Club Leon (Mexico) have qualified along with the Seattle Sounder (USA) from the Concacaf region, while Auckland FC are Oceania’s qualifier.
The format will follow the traditional World Cup structure with eight groups of four clubs and the top two going into the knock-out round.
The Club World Cup and the Gold Cup will take place at the same time in 2025 and it is understood that the tournaments will be staged on the different coasts in the United States.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “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.
“This will be an open competition based on sporting merit that will play a key role as part of our efforts to make the game truly global.”
FIFPro have expressed concerns that some players will feature in 80 matches in the 2024-25 season.
The World Leagues Forum has also previously expressed discomfort with the tournament.
In a statement, the world players union said: “Once again, decisions to scale competitions have been introduced without implementing appropriate safeguards, and without any say from the players who are at the forefront of driving the game’s popularity and revenue generation with their skill and endeavour.”
From 2024, the new Coupe Intercontinentale de la FIFA (FIFA Intercontinental Cup) will see two stages of competition.
In the first stage, the winners of the AFC Champions League or the winners of the CAF Champions League will play the winners of the OFC Champions League.
The winners of this round will go on to play either the winners of the AFC Champions League or the winners of the CAF Champions League in the final round.
In stage B, the winners of the Concacaf Champions Cup will play the winners of the CONMEBOL Libertadores.
The winners of the two stages will play each other in the days before the final, at the same neutral venue hosting the final.
The final will be played against the winners of the play-off and the winners of the UEFA Champions League at a neutral venue.
For the inaugural edition of the competition in 2024, the play-off will take place on 14 December, 2024, in a neutral location, with the final being played on 18 December, 2024, in the same location.
-0- PANA VAO/MA 19Dec2023
