Fifa Club World Cup format explained: What teams have qualified and how does the tournament work?
There’s no World Cup or Euros this summer, but fans do have a newly-revamped Club World Cup to look forward to as some of the world’s biggest teams descend on the United States for the inaugural competition.
The tournament has not been without its controversies after earning criticism from players amid fears they could burnout this summer following gruelling seasons and fixture pile-ups.
There were also concerns that the competition was failing to drum up interest from broadcasters as Fifa struggled to find an interested party before securing a deal to air it for free on DAZN.
But once the tournament finally gets underway on 14th June, all those fears should be put to one side as teams put on a showcase of football that fans can sink their teeth into.
Below, we’ve detailed everything you need to know about the Fifa Club World Cup format, how it works and who is set to take part this summer.
Which teams will feature and how have they qualified?
In the original version of the tournament, a handful of sides who had won the world’s major competitions — the Uefa Champions League, the Concacaf Champions Cup, the CAF Champions League and the AFC Champions League — would take part. But it always felt small-scale and unbalanced.
Usually, the reigning Uefa Champions League winners would stroll to victory and it didn’t make for very exciting viewing, but now Fifa have turned it into a 32-team tournament with a lot more variety and quality teams introduced.
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Rather than just having one team from Europe, there will now be 12 teams from the continent, with five teams from North America, six from South America, four from Africa and five from Asia and Oceania.
In addition to the major tournament winners, teams can qualify if they have won one of the tournaments between 2021 and 2024 or simply included through their high ranking. Inter Miami are an exception this – Fifa have selected them as the host team of the tournament.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup confirmed teams
AFC (four slots)
- Al Hilal – 2021 AFC Champions League winners
- Urawa Red Diamonds – 2022 AFC Champions League winners
- Al Ain – 2023-24 AFC Champions League winners
- Ulsan HD – AFC ranking pathway
CAF (four slots)
- Al Ahly – 2020-21, 2022-23 and 2023-24 CAF Champions League winners
- Wydad AC – 2021-22 CAF Champions League winners
- Esperance Sportive de Tunis – CAF ranking pathway
- Mamelodi Sundowns – CAF ranking pathway
UEFA (12 slots)
- Chelsea – 2020-21 Uefa Champions League winners
- Real Madrid – 2021-22 and 2023-24 Uefa Champions League winners
- Manchester City – 2022-23 Uefa Champions League winners
- Bayern Munich – Uefa ranking pathway
- Paris Saint-Germain – Uefa ranking pathway
- Inter Milan – Uefa ranking pathway
- Porto – Uefa ranking pathway
- Benfica – Uefa ranking pathway
- Borussia Dortmund – Uefa ranking pathway
- Juventus – Uefa ranking pathway
- Atletico Madrid – Uefa ranking pathway
- Red Bull Salzburg – Uefa ranking pathway
Concacaf (five slots)
- Monterrey – 2021 Concacaf Champions Cup woinners
- Seattle Sounders – 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup winners
- Pachuca – 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup winners
- Inter Miami – Host nation slot
- TBC*
OFC (one slot)
- Auckland City – OFC ranking pathway
Conmebol (six slots)
- Palmeiras – 2021 Conmebol Libertadores winners
- Flamengo – 2022 Conmebol Libertadores winners
- Fluminense – 2023 Conmebol Libertadores winners
- Botafogo – 2024 Conmebol Libertadores winners
- River Plate – Conmebol ranking pathway
- Boca Juniors – Conmebol ranking pathway
*There is one spot left to be filled, with 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup winners Club Leon initially scheduled to take part. But they have been removed from the competition as part of club ownership rules, being owned by Grupo Pachuca, who also own 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup winners Pachuca. Club Leon and Pachuca have both appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport about the decision, with a hearing scheduled for the week beginning 5th May.
Should the appeal fail, Fifa have confirmed they are considering a one-off play-off match between LAFC and Club America for the vacant spot. LAFC would get a chance as 2023 Concacaf Champions League runners-up (to Club Leon), while Club America are the highest-ranked team behind Club Leon in Concacaf that haven’t qualified for the Club World Cup.
How does the Fifa Club World Cup group stage work?
This isn’t too hard to get your head around. The tournament will follow a similar format to a regular World Cup or Euros – with a group stage comprising eight groups of four teams.
The groups will follow a round-robin single-game format – which means each team plays each other once. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams in each group advances to the last 16.
There are some mouth-watering groups on offer after the teams were drawn into Groups A-H – with PSG and Atletico paired together in Group A.
In Group B, fans will get to see Bayern Munich take on Benfica, while Man City and Juventus will square off in Group G. Chelsea and Real Madrid have been given arguably the more straight forward groups. The Blues will take on Flamengo, ES Tunis and Club Leon/LAFC/Club America, while Madrid face Al Hilal, Pachuca and Salzburg.
How does the Fifa Club World Cup knockout stage work?
This part is fairly straightforward too. After the two top teams from each group progress to the knockouts, there will be direct single-match ties from the round of 16 all the way to the final.
The winner of Group A will play the runner-up in Group B and vice versa. The winner of Group C will play the runner-up of Group D and so on – so it will be beneficial for each team to make sure they finish as strong as possible to avoid the big dogs of the tournament.
And to the relief of most teams taking part — with all the talk of players burning out — there will be no third-placed play-off game at the Club World Cup.
The third-placed game has often been criticised at the Fifa World Cup as being pointless and it has not been used by the Euros for decades. While it’s not thought this will be implemented at the 2026 World Cup next year, officials have listened to clubs by removing at least one unnecessary game.
