London: Fifa’s revamped Club World Cup planned for 2025 and set to feature 32 teams will be played from June 15 to July 13, while a new Intercontinental Cup will be played annually from next year, Gianni Infantino, the head of world soccer’s governing body, said on Sunday.
Fifa had announced an expanded Club World Cup earlier this year and unanimously voted to appoint the United States as hosts for the first edition of the event.
The Council met in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to ratify the dates for the Club World Cup and confirmed next year’s Intercontinental Cup would have the Uefa Champions League winner playing a team that comes through intercontinental playoffs.
The playoffs will be played on December 14, 2024, followed by the final on December 18.
“The (Club World Cup) tournament will feature all current confederation premier club competition champions,” Fifa President Infantino said.
“(It) concludes with a final at a neutral venue between the Uefa Champions League winners and the winners of an intercontinental play-off between clubs from the other confederations.”
Major changes
The 2025 edition of the tournament, which will be held every four years, will have eight groups of four with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout stages — the same format as the World Cup.
The current version of the Fifa Club World Cup — an annual competition with seven teams — will be discontinued after the tournament now also being hosted by Saudi Arabia.
The existing format sees the European and South American champions enter the tournament in the semi-final phase while champions from the other confederations come through earlier rounds.
Following are details for how the tournament will work:
The United States will host the 2025 edition of the expanded event, which will be held every four years thereafter.
— The tournament, which will be held every four years, will have eight groups of four with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout stages — the same format as the World Cup.
— The current version of the Fifa Club World Cup — an annual competition with seven teams — will be discontinued after the tournament now being hosted by Saudi Arabia.
— Europe will have 12 teams in the new competition and South America will have six, while Africa, Asia and North America have four each. Oceania has one slot, while the final slot will be allocated to a club from the host country.
Club ranking and qualification methodology
Clubs will be ranked based on sporting criteria over four seasons to secure qualification for the Club World Cup.
— Teams will get three points for a win, one point for a draw and three points for progress to each stage of their confederation’s premier competition.
— In Europe Uefa’s club coefficients system will be used, with teams getting two points for a win, one point for a draw, four points for qualification for the group stage, five points for qualification for the last 16 and one point for progress to each stage of the competition thereafter.
— Confederation champions from 2021-2024 will be eligible to play in the new Club World Cup, meaning Chelsea, Real Madrid and last season’s Champions League winners Manchester City have qualified from Europe.
— The other European teams who are front-runners to qualify based on the points system are Bayern Munich, Paris St Germain, Inter Milan, FC Porto and Benfica.
— From South America, Brazilian sides Palmeiras, Flamengo and Fluminense have qualified as champions, while Asian sides Al Hilal and Urawa Red Diamonds are also through.
— Al Ahly and Wydad have similarly qualified from Africa while Monterrey, Seattle Sounders and Club Leon are through from North America. Oceania’s Auckland City have sealed progress with no other team in position to overtake their points tally.
