The 2025 Club World Cup will see significant changes being put into effect in the continental club tournament. The FIFA Club World Cup has been a huge part of club football since it was founded in 2000, although it would not be held again until 2005 when Brazilian outfit Sao Paulo FC claimed the title.
With the 2025 Club World Cup set to be held in the United States, the tournament is going from its usual seven-team setting to a 32-team tournament, as announced by the FIFA Council on Sunday. This will see some of the biggest clubs in the world compete in the tournament, including record winner Real Madrid, who have won the competition five times.
FIFA’s 2025 Club World Cup date revealed
There’s no denying the game of soccer is evolving almost annually. Governing bodies are always trying to find new ways to keep the fans entertained at all times, which is why FIFA, who recently lost a lawsuit to UK football agents, announced the expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup from the seven-team tournament that it currently is to a 32-team competition that will begin in 2025.
Think of the UEFA Champions League but with football clubs from other confederations, such as South America, Oceania, North and Central America, Asia, and Africa. This is what the 2025 Club World is going to look like.
“The first edition of the new FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 will be played from 15 June to 13 July 2025 in the USA,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement posted on his social media account on Sunday.
The semi-finals for the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup are underway, and Brazil’s Fluminese will lock horns with Qatar’s Al Ahly in the first round of the semi-finals today. Current UCL champions Manchester City will travel to Japan to take on Urawa Reds in the second semi-final on Tuesday, with the last season’s treble-winners favorite to win the tournament this year for the first time in the club’s history.
Real Madrid, Man City, and Chelsea qualified as recent UCL champions
The 2025 Club World Cup has a strange and exciting qualification system. FIFA will consider a team’s result for the past four seasons, including the current one, to determine which teams qualify.
For example, out of the 12 teams that will be competing in the tournament from Europe, four of them have already been confirmed based on their triumph in the UEFA Champions League for the past four seasons, including the winner of this season’s competition. Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Manchester City are the winners of the past three UCL trophies and have all been confirmed to compete in the 2025 Club World Cup.
8 other teams will join them via the ranking pathway, and they’ve all been confirmed. Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter Milan, Porto, and SL Benfica will all compete in the tournament.
Apart from the changes made to the FIFA World Cup and the 2025 Club World Cup, UEFA has made changes of its own to the Champions League, which will be effective from the 2024/25 season.
Which team will win the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States?
