Which pot are Inter Miami, Seattle Sounders in for 2025 FIFA Club World Cup draw?

Major League Soccer’s two representatives at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will both be bottom seeds in the revamped tournament’s group-stage draw, which is to take place in Miami on Thursday.

Announcing the draw procedure today, FIFA revealed that Inter Miami and Seattle Sounders will go into pot 4 at this week’s event in Florida, where the Club World Cup’s 32 teams will be placed into eight groups of four.

Inter Miami and Seattle will be two of three CONCACAF teams in pot 4, together with Liga MX’s Pachuca. The two top teams in CONCACAF’s club rankings - Mexican pair Monterrey and Club León - will be in pot 3.

How did Miami, Seattle qualify for Club World Cup?

Miami qualified as the host team of the Club World Cup, which is to be staged in the United States, after topping the MLS’s regular-season standings with a league-record 74 points. The Sounders, meanwhile, booked their spot at the expanded tournament’s inaugural edition by winning the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League.

FIFA Club World Cup draw: the pots in full

Pot 1: Manchester City (ENG), Real Madrid, (ESP), Bayern Munich (GER), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Flamengo (BRA), Palmeiras (BRA), River Plate (ARG), Fluminense (BRA)

Pot 2: Chelsea (ENG), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Inter Milan (ITA), Porto (POR), Atlético Madrid (ESP), Benfica (POR), Juventus (ITA), RB Salzburg (AUT)

Pot 3: Al Hilal (KSA), Ulsan (KOR), Al Ahly (EGY), Wydad (MAR), Monterrey (MEX), Club León (MEX), Boca Juniors (ARG), Botafogo (BRA)

Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN), Al Ain (UAE), Espérance (TUN), Mamelodi Sundowns FC (RSA), Pachuca (MEX), Seattle Sounders (USA), Auckland City (NZL), Inter Miami (USA)

Check out FIFA’s seeding criteria in full.

How will the Club World Cup draw work?

One club from each of the four draw pots will be assigned to each group, with teams from the same confederation mostly kept apart. The exception will be UEFA’s representatives: as Europe will have 12 teams at the tournament, four of the eight groups will feature two clubs from the continent. No European clubs from the same country can be drawn together in the round-robin phase.

For scheduling reasons, FIFA says, Inter Miami and Seattle will automatically be allocated the bottom-seed berth in Groups A and B, respectively.

When is the FIFA Club World Cup draw?

Held on Thursday December 5, 2024, the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup draw will take place as a live studio event, and is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT. Viewers worldwide will be able to watch the event live on FIFA.com and FIFA+, the global governing body’s streaming service.

You will also have the option of following AS USA’s live-text coverage of the draw.

When is the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup?

The tournament is to be held in 11 US cities from June 15 to July 13, 2024. Inter Miami are to host the opening game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, while the final is to be staged at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The list of Club World Cup host cities also includes: Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida; Pasadena, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and Washington D.C.

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