Nineteen of 32 participants at new 2025 FIFA Club World Cup confirmed

With the 2023 Club World Cup still ongoing in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), FIFA have confirmed that this edition will be the last in the current seven team format with the competition set to undergo a seismic expansion.

Soccer’s global governing body have confirmed that the first edition of the newly revamped Club World Cup will be staged in the United States in 2025 and is set to feature 32 teams with matches set to be played between 15 June and 13 July.

The new competition’s official name will be Mundial de Clubes FIFA and will feature clubs from each of the six confederations and 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.

2025 Mundial de Clubes FIFA: format

The tournament will feature an opening stage composed of eight groups of four teams per group playing in a single-game round-robin format with the top two teams per group progressing to the round of 16.

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There will then be a direct single-match knockout stage from the round of 16 to the final and the unpopular third/fourth place play-off game hae been done away with.

FIFA will use the competition and the 2024 Copa America as testing grounds ahead of the 2026 expanded 48-team World Cup which is set to be staged in Mexico, Canada and the US.

2025 Mundial de Clubes FIFA: already qualified