The new Club World Cup, with an expanded format, already has a date and venue. It will be in 2025 and in the United States. It will be held every four years and will have 32 participating teams. "The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will be the pinnacle of elite professional men's club football," FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented on Friday. The choice of the USA as host was a “unilateral” decision, by the Council of soccer's governing body.
The 32-team World Cup comes to replace the Confederations Cup, which was held a year earlier at the venue that hosted the World Cup and served as a test bench for the organization. So the election of the United States, which will host the vast majority of the parties of the big event in 2026, is not a total surprise.
Manchester City, Real Madrid and Chelsea are already classified for the new tournament, since they are the champions of the last three Champions League. To ensure its presence in this newly minted competition, Barcelona would need to win the top European competition in 2024 or 2025. In December 2023, the latest edition of the Club World Cup as we know it will be played in Saudi Arabia, which replaced the Intercontinental Cup.
In addition to the two English and Spanish teams, Brazilian Palmeiras and Flamengo, Mexican León and Monterrey, MLS Seattle Sounders, Saudi Al Hilal, Japanese Urawa Red, Al-Ahly Egyptian and Wydad Casablanca from Morocco, finalists of the last two editions of the African Champions League.
The FIFA Council met by videoconference from FIFA headquarters. In the host selection process, the infrastructure and service requirements for the tournament were taken into account.
"The decision was made based on the United States' position as a proven leader in hosting world events and because it would allow FIFA to maximize synergies" ahead of the 2026 World Cup 12 months later, the statement said. Now the dates of the tournament, the stadiums that will host the matches and the final calendar, when all the participants are known, remain to be detailed.
"The United States is the ideal host to kick off this new world tournament," Infantino added. "With some of the best clubs in the world already qualified, fans from every continent will bring their passion and energy to the US within two years."
