One year before 48 of men’s soccer’s best national teams arrive in North America for the World Cup, 32 of the best club teams arrive in the US for the first edition of the expanded Club World Cup in 2025. do.
Participants include the top 12 European teams based on their Champions League performance, including Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City. Clubs from other parts of the world qualify for various continental club championships.
Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders qualified by winning the 2022 Concacaf Champions League, with teams such as Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Brazil already qualified, but more than half of the slots are occupied. It is not yet decided.
FIFA announced on friday The US will host the event. The city where the match will be held and the exact format of the tournament have yet to be revealed. The event is scheduled for June and July.
FIFA has long dreamed of a club team world championship that would rival the big international team events hosted by the club. At one point, it was announced that a 24-team version of the event would be held in China, but it was canceled due in part to the pandemic.
In its current format, which began in 2005, the Club World Cup is held each winter season and features seven teams, one from each continent and one from the host country. The expanded event was proposed a long time ago, but has been postponed several times and will now take place every four years.
Despite the global field, European teams have almost always won the event, and with 12 of the 32 participating teams participating in the new format, European teams could continue to win. I think it’s highly likely. This means the Club World Cup could essentially be an improved version of Europe’s Champions League. It will also increase the match schedule for most of the top players throughout the year.
For these reasons, European governing bodies, UEFA, some top club teams and player representatives were sometimes less enthusiastic about the expanded event.
JT Batson, CEO of American football, said: he said he was excited about upcoming events.
The 2025 event will feature 12 teams from Europe, plus 6 teams from South America. Four each from Asia, Africa, North and Central America, and the Caribbean. One from Oceania. The other is from the host country, in this case the United States.
The expanded Club World Cup will take place one year before the 2026 World Cup, with the majority of matches, including the final, being held in the United States, with some matches in Canada and Mexico. In 2024, the United States will host the Copa America, a championship tournament for South American national teams.
