FIFA has decided who will be allowed to take part in the 2025 Club World Cup with 32 teams. Bayern Munich would be there for sure.
At its meeting in Rwanda’s capital Kigali on Tuesday (March 14, 2023), the FIFA Council decided on access to the competition, which is to be held every four years from 2025 with 32 teams. This is how qualifying works in Europe:
- The winners of the Champions League 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are sure to be there. Chelsea FC (winner 2021) and Real Madrid (2022) have already secured participation.
- Added to that top eight teams in a UEFA ranking over the same period.
- A maximum of two teams above the coefficient may participate per country, in total the limit is four per country.
- Bayern Munich is currently at the top of UEFA’s five-year rankings. As a result, FC Bayern would probably be at the World Cup, Borussia Dortmund could at least hope.
| Platz | Club | Land |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Bayern Munich |
Deutschland |
|
2 |
Manchester City |
England |
|
3 |
FC Liverpool |
England |
|
4 |
Chelsea FC |
England |
|
5 |
Real Madrid |
Spain |
|
6 |
Paris Saint Germain |
France |
|
7 |
Manchester United |
England |
|
8 |
FC Barcelona |
Spain |
|
9 |
Juventus Turin |
Italy |
|
10 |
ajax Amsterdam |
Netherlands |
|
11 |
Borussia Dortmund |
Deutschland |
|
12 |
Inter Milan |
Italy |
|
13 |
AS Rom |
Italy |
|
14 |
Atletico Madrid |
Spain |
|
15 |
RB Leipzig |
Deutschland |
|
16 |
FC Villarreal |
Spain |
Europe provides the majority of the teams
Most of the teams at the World Cup will come from Europe. More than a third come from the UEFA area. FIFA had already decided on the distribution of starting places in February.
| confederacy | Voices |
|---|---|
|
UEFA (Europe) |
12 |
|
CONMEBOL (Southamerica) |
6 |
|
CAF (Africa) |
4 |
|
AFC (Asia) |
4 |
|
CONCACAF (North America) |
4 |
|
OFC (Oceania) |
1 |
|
host |
1 |
| total | 32 |
FIFA decides on a B World Cup for clubs from 2024
The old Club World Cup with seven teams will soon be a thing of the past, with the 2023 edition to take place in Saudi Arabia. “Therefore, the FIFA Council has decided on a strategic concept of an annual FIFA club competition from 2024”the statement said.
The European Champions League winner is to meet a team at a neutral venue that the other continental associations will have previously determined in playoffs.
Club World Cup: Attractive for the clubs, not for the national leagues
At the end of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the FIFA Council decided that from 2025 the Club World Cup with 32 teams would take place every four years. For FIFA President Gianni Infantino, it was one of his recent sporting political successes. He had failed with the two-year rhythm of the world championships for national teams for men and women.
FIFA only makes big profits in the years when the men’s World Cup is held. A men’s Club World Cup with 32 teams is economically the long-awaited opportunity to earn money in other years as well and to secure power with the distribution of money.
However, what FIFA likes is not always in the interests of all interest groups. The calendar is full, opportunities to play remain contested. In England, the cup competitions are already being evaporated due to a lack of dates. Many view the new competition with suspicion.
- Club: Some representatives of the ECA threatened to boycott the tournament. The background is likely to be the negotiations for a new cooperation agreement. The ECA wants more money for their clubs for the release of national players. The amount had already been significantly increased for the World Cup. In principle, the clubs in particular are not generally opposed to the new tournament: there is a lot of money to be made.
- The league: For the Bundesliga and other domestic leagues, the Club World Cup is another entrant in the fight for TV money, which comes from the same broadcasters and services for all associations. In the battle for distribution of this money, in addition to the Champions League, which will be expanded from 2024, there is now also an enlarged Club World Cup.
- Player Unions: The international players’ union FIFPRO signed an agreement with FIFA during the World Cup in Qatar, which also included involvement in decision-making processes. Five days later, FIFA unilaterally fixed key parts of the future calendar – FIFPRO and the leagues responded with derogatory press releases.
- UEFA: FIFA has been in a power struggle with UEFA for a long time. According to information from the sports show, the fact that UEFA accepted the Club World Cup as strong competition for the Champions League was also due to a deal: the reform of the international game windows in autumn, in which three were made into two windows, was in the interests of UEFA. They needed space on the calendar for their reformed Champions League, which now has more matchdays.
Tournament Investor should get a lot of power on last try
In 2021, Infantino already had the commitment for a Club World Cup with 24 teams in his pocket, but had to cancel it because of the corona pandemic. The framework conditions in the background during the preparations were unprecedented: FIFA was looking for an investor who would buy most of the rights to the tournament and would be given an unusually large say in the matter.
According to media reports, the investor should be able to make suggestions for alternative tournament parameters for his money in future editions of the tournament, “including the frequency, format, qualification modalities and teams involved”. In the coming years, the tournament will probably continue to be played with seven teams – in the background the preparations for the general conditions for the new big tournament will also be running.
In the next business cycle, sales should increase to eleven billion US dollars (10.3 billion euros), as announced by Infantino. He emphasized that the new Club World Cup was not included.