United States to host 2025 FIFA Club World Cup: Qualified teams, dates, format, spots per confedrations

FIFA confirmed Sunday that it will launch an expanded version of the Club World Cup featuring 32 teams that will take place every four years. The first edition will take place in the U.S. in 2025 from June 15 to July 13 and will serve as an unofficial precursor to the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

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The announcement came after a meeting of the FIFA Council in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where this year’s Club World Cup is currently taking place. Sunday’s meeting formalized a plan that was all but confirmed when the FIFA Council last met in March.

The newly envisioned Club World Cup will include a combination of each confederation’s club champions from the previous four seasons as well as teams that rank the highest in their continental rankings. The format will resemble that of the most recent men’s and women’s World Cups, in which there was a group stage that saw 32 teams divided into eight groups of four before the knockout rounds.

UEFA will have 12 teams participate, eight of whom will come through the ranking pathway, while CONMEBOL will send six sides, two through the ranking pathway. Concacaf, CAF, and AFC will each have four teams including one from the ranking pathway for the latter two confederations, while OFC’s lone representative will be in through their rankings.

FIFA also announced the creation of the Intercontinental Cup, an annual club competition that resembles the current Club World Cup format. The Intercontinental Cup will see the most recent confederation champions face off against each other in single-leg matchups before the playoff and the final at a neutral venue.

The competition will open with Stage A, when the OFC Champions League winner will take on either their AFC or CAF equivalent on a rotating basis. The winner of that matchup will then face the Asian or African team that did not participate in the first game. In Stage B, the Concacaf Champions Cup victor will face the Copa Libertadores champion. The winners of Stage A and Stage B will then clash in the play-off before facing the UEFA Champions League champion in the final.

FIFA has not confirmed dates for Stages A and B yet but the inaugural playoff and final will take place on Dec. 14 and 18, respectively.

As for the Club World Cup, a handful of teams have already qualified. Here’s a look at the teams who will be competing in the U.S. in 2025.

Europe

South America

North America

Africa

Asia

Oceania