FIFA
Real Madrid will play in expanded Club World Cup
The distribution of European places would include the four previous Champions League champions.
One of the big unknowns of the new 32-team Club World Cup starting in 2025 is how UEFA will distribute the 12 places. Talks are still underway between FIFA, UEFA and the ECA, but The Times has already revealed an important piece of information.
The most likely scenario would see the eight places awarded based on UEFA coefficient and another four to the Champions League winners of the last editions prior to the Club World Cup (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025). That would mean that Real Madrid would have secured their place in the first edition to be held in June 2025 at a venue yet to be determined.
The UEFA ranking is considered the most logical way for awarding the places. At present, and if the tournament were to be held now, the eight qualifiers would be: Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United. Given that Madrid would qualify as Champions League winners, their place would go to Juventus, who are ninth in the rankings.
The Times explains that UEFA wants to limit the number of qualified teams to two per country. This would affect the English sides, who have four teams in the top eight in the rankings. The beneficiaries would be the following teams in the coefficient: Ajax and Borussia Dortmund. The only way to have four clubs per country is if two of them win the Champions League in the previous years and there are another two in the top eight.
Infantino’s FIFA plan
FIFA announced after its last Council meeting that it has already decided the allocation of Confederation places for the new World Cup: UEFA (Europe) will have 12, CONMEBOL (South America) 6, AFC (Asia) 4, CAF (Africa) 4, CONCACAF (Central and North America) 4, OFC (Oceania) 1 and a last place for the host of the tournament. The new Club World Cup expanded to 32 teams is Infantino’s big bet for his new mandate, which he will inaugurate in a month’s time at a congress in Rwanda.
For the time being, FIFA will maintain the current Club World Cup format, with seven participating teams and one per Confederation, plus the host.