Expanded 2025 Club World Cup in U.S. to take place over 29 days in June

The first edition of the expanded FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 will begin on June 15, and will last 29 days finishing on July 13.

FIFA announced plans for its expansion to 32 teams in December 2022.

The U.S. was confirmed as the host country in June, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino saying that “with the required infrastructure in place together with a massive local interest, the United States is the ideal host to kick off this new, global tournament”.

The expanded Club World Cup, with its format and dates announced after a FIFA Council meeting on Sunday, will come almost exactly a year before the U.S., alongside Canada and Mexico, co-hosts the 2026 men’s World Cup.

European teams will take up 12 of the 32 spots in the new Club World Cup, with four of those being the UEFA Champions League winners in each of the four years before 2025.

Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City have already secured their places after winning that competition in recent years.

FIFA has also announced the plans for the annual FIFA Intercontinental Cup, which will see the reigning UEFA Champions League winner face one of the other confederation’s tournament winners in a final after play-off rounds involving the remaining continental champions.

How will the new format work?

The current Club World Cup format involves seven teams — the winner of each continental competition plus the hosts’ national champion — competing for the title each year, comprising two first-round games, two second-round games, two semi-finals (where the UEFA Champions League and Copa Libertadores winners enter), a third-place play-of, and a final.

The revamped tournament will contain eight groups of four teams, with side each playing each other once as the top two qualify for the knockouts, beginning with a last-16 round. Those knockout games will be single-legged and there will not be a third-place play-off.

The new Club World Cup will take place every four years, with the international match calendar altered from 2025 to see one extended international break in late September and early October replacing two separate windows.

It has previously taken place around the turn of the calendar year, during the traditional European domestic season, but the 2025 edition will come in the middle of the year, during the North American and South American domestic seasons.

Story By: Princeton Wiredu