FIFA Club World Cup 2025: Full Format, Teams, Groups, Dates & £775m Prize Breakdown

Image: “2021 FIFA Club World Cup Final – 23” by Fars Media Corporation, originally published on farsnews.ir, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is less than one month away, and the tournament will be the first of FIFA’s new and expanded competition format.

Featuring clubs from around the world, the Club World Cup 2025 will involve 32 teams competing for the trophy. The tournament will be held all over the USA, with the first game scheduled for the 15th of June in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

What format changes have been made to the FIFA Club World Cup?

The tournament’s biggest change is the number of teams, with the previous edition seeing only seven teams compete in 2023, where Manchester City beat Brazilian side, Fluminese, 4-0 to win the competition. From 2025 onwards, the tournament will involve 32 clubs.

The competition, now held every four years instead of annually, is the first of the new format, and the increase in teams reflects the growing globalisation of modern football.

Where is the Club World Cup taking place? 

Dates: 15th June – 13th July

Host nation: United States of America

Host cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, East Rutherford, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Pasadena, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C.

The tournament’s opener will be held at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, with the final being played at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

How do teams qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup?

Qualification for the tournament is based on each confederation’s highest level continental club competition.

Firstly, teams can qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup as winners of the most recent edition of their confederation’s club competition.

Clubs can also qualify based on a ranking system tied to each confederation’s club tournament performances. Across the four years leading up to each Club World Cup, teams gather points based on their continental performances, with the best performing teams qualifying for the tournament.

The amount of spots varies depending on the confederation, with the allocation as follows:

• – UEFA (Europe): 12 clubs 
• – CONMEBOL (South America): 6 clubs
• – CONCACAF (North/Central America): 4 clubs
• – CAF (Africa): 4 clubs
• – AFC (Asia): 4 clubs
• – OFC (Oceania): 1 club
• – 1 spot for host nation (Inter Miami)

FIFA Club World Cup tournament format explained:

The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 format will see the 32 teams split into eight groups of four clubs, with teams playing each other once in the group stage.

Similar to the previous FIFA World Cup format, the top two teams from each group will advance to the Round of 16 knockout phase, continuing in this knockout fashion until the final.

Which clubs are taking part in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025?

Group A: SE Palmeiras (BRA), FC Porto (POR), Al Ahly FC (EGY), Inter Miami CF (USA)

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Atletico de Madrid (ESP), Botafogo (BRA), Seattle Sounders FC (USA)

Group C: FC Bayern München (GER), Auckland City (NZL), CA Boca Juniors (ARG), SL Benfica (POR)

Group D: CR Flamengo (BRA), Espérance Sportive de Tunis (TUN), Chelsea FC (ENG), Club León (MEX)

Group E: CA River Plate (ARG), Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN), CF Monterrey (MEX), FC Internazionale Milano (ITA)

Group F: Fluminense FC (BRA), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Ulsan HD (KOR), Mamelodi Sundowns FC (RSA)

Group G: Manchester City (ENG), Wydad AC (MAR), Al Ain FC (UAE), Juventus FC (ITA)

Group H: Real Madrid C. F. (ESP), Al Hilal (KSA), CF Pachuca (MEX), FC Salzburg (AUT)

Why is the FIFA Club World Cup controversial?

The additional 63 games that the FIFA Club World Cup brings has been met with resistance from various footballing bodies, with the World Leagues Forum (an organisation of 44 members representing professional leagues across the world) having complained to FIFA about a lack of concern for individual national competitions.

Player welfare is also a concern, with the competition adding more matches and less rest to the already-busy footballing calendar.

What is the FIFA Club World Cup prize money?

With a prize pot of £775m across the 32 teams, the winner of the tournament will earn a minimum of £30m, which could rise as high as £97m depending on various ‘sporting and commercial criteria’, according to FIFA.

The revenues of the tournament are also not set to be earned by FIFA, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino saying “FIFA will neither retain any funding for this tournament, as all revenues will be distributed to club football, nor will it touch FIFA’s reserves, which are set aside for global football development through the 211 FIFA Member Associations.”

With football’s global expansion accelerating, tournaments like the FIFA Club World Cup reflect the scale and complexity of the industry today. At the Global Institute of Sport, our undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are designed to prepare you for exactly this kind of modern football ecosystem, enabling you to progress or begin a successful career in sport.

Article by Zakaria Anani