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FIFA have confirmed the new Club World Cup format will begin in 2025 and here is all you need to know about how it works.
FIFA have confirmed the massive changes to be made to the Club World Cup with the format set to change massively from the 2025 edition.
The competition will now go from a mini-tournament which features just seven teams to a proper mundial with 32 teams involved over the course of a month.
FIFA first announced changes to the Club World Cup format in December 2022 but the general public have been made to wait until now to find out the specifics of the changes and how exactly they would work.
Here is all you need to know about the new FIFA Club World Cup including the hosts, how long the competition will go on for, the qualification process and many more crucial information.
How will the new format work?
The current format for the FIFA Club World Cup features six continental champions and the national champions of the host nation which makes up seven teams and the tournament spans the period of a week.
The revamped tournament will be played like the regular World Cup, containing eight groups of four teams, with each side playing each other once as the top two qualify for the knockouts.
The knockout games beginning with the round of 16 will be single-legged but the twist is there will not be a third-place play-off unlike the FIFA World Cup.
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Another big change will see the FIFA Club World Cup go from being an annual tournament to now being held every four years just like the regular Mundial.
The international match calendar will be altered from 2025 to see one extended international break in late September and early October replacing two separate windows.
The first edition of this new and improved FIFA Club World Cup will be held in the United States in 2025, a year before the World Cup in 2026 which will be partly hosted there as well along with Mexico and Canada.
What is the qualification process?
The 32 teams taking part in the new FIFA Club World Cup will include 12 teams from Europe (UEFA), six from South America (CONMEBOL), four from North America (CONCACAF), four from Asia (AFC), four from Africa (CAF) and one from Oceania (OFC) while the last slot will go to a club from the host country.
The 12 UEFA clubs will include the Champions League winners between 2020-21 and 2023-24 and eight other teams to be determined by a club ranking based on the same four-year period. As it stands, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City have already qualified.
There is a maximum of two clubs per European country for each edition of the new FIFA Club World Cup which means no other teams in England apart from Chelsea and Manchester City can feature in it.
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For CONMEBOL, the six clubs will include Copa Libertadores winners between 2021 and 2024 and two other teams to be determined by a club ranking based on the same four-year period with Palmeiras, Flamengo and Fluminense having already qualified.
Monterrey, Seattle Sounders and Leon have already taken three of the four CONCACAF slots with one more to be determined and another through the host slot as it will be an American team.
Al Hilal and Urawa Red Diamonds have also qualified from Asia leaving two slots which will be heavily contested especially by the competitive Saudi Arabian teams.
Al Ahly of Egypt and Wydad AC of Morocco are the African representatives so far with two more slots still to be filled with the next CAF Champions League winners and other criteria.
How will the other slots be determined?
The other available slots in the competition will be filled through a ranking system in the different leagues and here is how it will work exactly.
The following system will be used for teams to earn ranking points from their confederation’s premier club competition: three points for a win, one point for a draw and three points for progress to each stage of the competition.
However, the ranking system for Europe will be different for teams in the UEFA Champions League: two points for a win, one point for a draw, four points for qualification for the group stage, five points for qualification for the round of 16 and one point for progress to each stage of the competition thereafter.
Going by this system, FIFA estimates that FC Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto and Benfica would take up five of Europe’s eight remaining spots.
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