Expansion, expansion, expansion! That’s the rage at FIFA HQ.
More teams, more games, more injuries, more money. It’s all about more, and there aren’t too many superior examples of the governing body’s gluttony that the revamped Club World Cup.
Instead of the six confederate champions competing in an admittedly low-key event at the end of the year, FIFA are advertising their new and improved club competition as a summer festival with the world’s best locking horns.
Much of the globe will be represented in the USA next summer, with all 32 qualifying spots now filled. Let’s run through the teams that’ll be competing at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that UEFA will be heavily represented at the 2025 Club World Cup. 12 of the 32 competing teams are European.
Among those are recent Champions League victors – Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City. The nine other participants all qualified via the UEFA ranking pathway.
Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter, Porto and Benfica were all confirmed as qualifiers at the end of 2023, and they’ve since been joined by 2024 Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund, as well as Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Red Bull Salzburg.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Barcelona are among the heavy hitters to miss out.
The four most recent Copa Libertadores winners are all Brazilian, but they’re all different!
Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense and Botafogo have all booked their spots at next summer’s tournament by winning the Libertadores.
These four will be joined by Superclasico foes River Plate and Boca Juniors, who are CONMEBOL’s two highest-ranked clubs not to win the Libertadores since 2021.
There will be no Cristiano Ronaldo in the USA next summer, but we might get to enjoy some Neymar – although that’s far from a guarantee.
Al Hilal are one of three teams to qualify for the tournament due to their success in the AFC Champions League. They won the competition in 2021. Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds and Dubai-based outfit Al Ain are the most recent victors.
South Korean club Ulsan HD are the only AFC team to qualify based on ranking. Ulsan have won three consecutive K League titles and are two-time AFC Champions League winners.
Al Ahly have historically been the most dominant team in Africa, and they were a shoo-in for next summer’s competition given that they’ve won three of the previous four CAF Champions Leagues.
Wydad AC of Morocco are the only team to break Al Ahly’s monopoly over the competition in recent times.
Esperance de Tunis will be making their fourth Club World Cup appearance in 2025, while South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns are primed for their second outing at the tournament.
There are no ‘ranked’ clubs to qualify from CONCACAF. The four qualifiers are all recent winners of the CONCACAF Champions League.
2021 victors Monterrey and 2024 champions Pachuca are veterans of the Club World Cup, with the two teams preparing for their sixth and fifth appearances respectively. Leon are less experienced having qualified for the tournament just once.
Mexico’s recent dominance of the CONCACAF Champions League was broken up by the Seattle Sounders in 2022, but they won’t be the only MLS representative on home soil next summer.
There was just a single slot available for the OFC, which has been occupied by Auckland City. New Zealand’s prolific outfit are 12-time winners of the OFC Champions League and have won the three previous competitions.
From FIFA: “Inter Miami qualify as the host country representative team on the basis of the club’s outstanding and consistent 34-match campaign that saw them secure the shield with two MLS matches to play.”
Despite their regular season supremacy, Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami were bounced out of the play-offs at the first time of asking, yet FIFA announced the Herons as the hosts representative before their defeat to Atlanta United.
There’s bound to be plenty of vintage star power on display when Messi’s Miami kick-off the tournament on 15 June.
