2025 FIFA Club World Cup: Expanded format, host & teams involved

For many, the Champions League is considered the ultimate prize in club football.

When Pep Guardiola finally got his hands around the big-eared cup in 2023, he gushed: “This f***ing trophy, it is so difficult to win it. It is impossible.” However, to the big wigs at FIFA, the Champions League merely serves as the qualification tournament for the real prize.

In the same month that Manchester City completed the European treble, FIFA revealed more details about the reformatted Club World Cup in 2025. President Gianni Infantino described the new-look 32-team competition as ‘the pinnacle of elite professional men’s club football’.

Here’s everything you need to know about this upcoming behemoth of a competition.

• When is the 2025 Club World Cup?

While the exact dates for the rejigged jamboree have not been confirmed, FIFA did release a statement that claimed the tournament would take place in June 2025.

Unlike the current iteration of the Club World Cup, which is annually held in the northern hemisphere’s winter, the new tournament will take place in the summer every four years – aping the scheduling of the international World Cup.

The 2023 Club World Cup, which will be the final edition of the tournament in its current guise, takes place from 12 December to 22 December 2023 in Saudi Arabia.

• Where is the 2025 Club World Cup?

In June 2023, FIFA revealed that the United States would be ‘the ideal host to kick off this new, global tournament’.

The next edition of the Copa America – an international competition traditionally between South American nations – will be held in the US between June and July 2024, ensuring that the requisite infrastructure for FIFA’s club competition already exists.

The 2026 men’s World Cup is also being co-hosted by the US – alongside Canada and Mexico. For a country in which football is – at best – the third-most popular sport, the US are getting a front-row seat to the best of the game in the coming years.

• How do clubs qualify for the 2025 Club World Cup?

There is guaranteed to be at least one representative from all six FIFA Confederations at the 2025 Club World Cup.

UEFA (Europe’s governing body) will have 12 clubs competing, made up of the four Champions League winners between 2021 and 2024 alongside eight teams ‘determined by a club ranking based on the same four-year period’.

South America’s CONMEBOL are only entitled to six teams; the four Copa Libertadores champions between 2021 and 2024 together win the two highest-ranked clubs in the same time period.

CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), AFC (Asia) and CAF (Africa) will be represented by the four winners of their respective Champions League equivalents between 2021 and 2024.

Oceania’s OFC is only allowed one guaranteed participant which will be decided not by any continental competition but by the opaque ranking system which takes into consideration each team’s performance between 2021 and 2024.

Finally, the host country is afforded the final slot – which, in the case of 2025, will be the USA. How this wildcard will be decided is yet to be revealed.

If the same club wins their confederation’s Champions League more than once during the window of 2021 to 2024, then the spot this frees up will be filled by the next highest ranked club from that association.

• Qualified teams for the 2025 Club World Cup