The US will host the 2025 Club World Cup
A year before 48 of the top men’s national soccer teams come to North America for the World Cup, 32 of the top club teams arrive in the United States for the first edition of an expanded Club World Cup in 2025.
The participants include the top 12 European teams based on their performance in the Champions League, including Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City. Clubs from the rest of the world qualify from their various continental club championships.
Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders earned a spot by winning the 2022 Concacaf Champions League, and teams from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere have already qualified, with more than half of the field still to be determined.
FIFA announced Friday that the United States would host the event. The cities where matches will be held and the exact format of the tournament have not yet been announced. The event is expected to take place in June and July.
FIFA has long dreamed of a world club championship that could one day rival the major international team events it hosts. At one point, a 24-team version of the event was announced for China, but it was scrapped, in part due to the pandemic.
Under its current format, started in 2005, the Club World Cup is held annually in the winter months, with seven teams – one per continent and one from the host country. The expanded event, proposed long ago but postponed several times, is expected to be held every four years.
Despite the global field, the European teams almost always win the event, and with 12 of the 32 entrants in the new format, it looks like they will continue to do so. This means that the Club World Cup could essentially become a revamped version of the European Champions League. It would also add to the almost year-round playing schedule for top players.
Partly for these reasons, the European governing body, UEFA, some top club teams and player representatives were sometimes less enthusiastic about the extensive event.
JT Batson, the CEO of US Soccer, said he was excited about the upcoming event.
In addition to the 12 European participants, the 2025 event will feature six teams from South America; four each from Asia, Africa, and the region of North and Central America and the Caribbean; one from Oceania; and one from the host country, in this case the United States.
The expanded Club World Cup comes a year ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will host most of its matches, including the final, in the United States, with some matches in Canada and Mexico. In 2024, the United States will host the Copa América, the championship for South American national teams.