Explained: How the Club World Cup Format Will Work

With the club football season over, fans around the world turn their heads to the revamped Club World Cup taking place over the Atlantic during June and July. This Championship will be held between June 14 and July 13 and will be the first edition of its kind, with spectators all over the globe eagerly awaiting who will come out victorious in the inaugural tournament of he revamped format.

With many people questioning the format as well as certain teams invited to compete in the new 32-team competition in the United States, this blog will attempt to explain these decisions, as well as describing how the Club World Cup format will work and why the competition has this.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙐𝙇𝙇 𝘾𝙇𝙐𝘽 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘿 𝘾𝙐𝙋 𝘿𝙍𝘼𝙒 😍🍿 pic.twitter.com/XrvBXVumdP

— 433 (@433) December 5, 2024

How the Teams Qualified

Some may have seen over the past weekend, a one-legged qualifier for this tournament between Mexico’s Club America and the States’ LAFC. The latter won the contest after extra-time, and they were awarded the fourth and final spot in Group D- where they will play alongside Chelsea from England, Flamengo from Brazil, and ES Tunis from Tunisia. This spot in Group D was originally given to Leon after they were triumphant in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League.

Mark. Your. Calendars. ✍️🗓️

The #FIFACWC 2025 match schedule is here. pic.twitter.com/zZaab9Xi6h

— FIFA Club World Cup (@FIFACWC) December 7, 2024

Winning your region’s Champions League was one of the ways in which sides earned qualification to the tournament; however, the Mexican side were denied entry to the competition after FIFA stated the club had “failed to meet the criteria on multi-club ownership”. This was due to the fact that Leon’s owner also controlled fellow participant in Pachuca. This decision saw FIFA allow runners-up of that 2023 tournament (LAFC) and the current top seed in the CONCACAF ranking (Club America) play it out for the last spot. LAFC won 2-1 and now form a trio of MLS sides in the summer.

This was thankfully the only issue FIFA ran into when choosing its 2025 competitors, with the third ways teams were chosen to compete, were based off regional Champions League winners and regional club rankings from the 2020/21 season to the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

The third way being the most controversial however, with Lionel Messi's Inter Miami earning a spot in the competition as "host nation" after winning the Supporters' Shield in the MLS. Fans were not all happy with this though, as this trophy is awarded for the team with the most points won in the regular season, not the overall MLS Cup, which was won by LA Galaxy.

A look at how every team qualified for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. pic.twitter.com/rnhLarnpx4

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) December 19, 2024

Clubs Qualified as Regional Champions

Information taken as per the FIFA website.

Al Ahly- Egypt and Wydad- Morocco for winning the recent CAF Champions Leagues.

Al-Hilal- Saudi Arabia, Urawa Red Diamonds- Japan, and Al Ain- UAE for winning the recent AFC Champions Leagues.

Chelsea- England, Real Madrid- Spain, and Manchester City- England for winning the recent UEFA Champions Leagues.

Monterrey- Mexico, Seattle Sounders- USA, and Pachuca- Mexico for winning the recent CONCACAF Champions Leagues.

Palmeiras- Brazil, Flamengo- Brazil, Fluminense- Brazil, and Botafogo- Brazil for winning the recent CONMEBOL Champions Leagues.

Clubs Qualified Through Ranking

UEFA- Bayern Munich (GER), PSG (FRA), Inter Milan (ITA), Porto (POR), Benfica (POR), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Juventus (ITA), Atletico Madrid (ESP), and FC Salzburg (AUT)

OFC- Auckland City (NZL)

AFC- Ulsan HD FC (KOR)

CAF- ES Tunis (TUN) and Mamelodi Sundowns (RSA)

CONMEBOL- River Plate (ARG) and Boca Juniors (ARG)

Host Nation Slot

Inter Miami (USA)- MLS Supporters’ Shield Winners 2024

How Will the Format Work?

Between the Club World Cup’s rebrand in 2006 until 2023, the format included the winner from each of the six regions to be split where the OFC side would play a team from the host nation, with the winner advancing to the second round, where the CONCACAF, CAF, and AFC teams would enter, with the winners of that playing in the semi finals against the UEFA and CONMEBOL sides before advancing to the final.

The official world club cup arrangement.

It's going to get interesting real quick. pic.twitter.com/i6sytpGYgJ

— U𝕘𝕝𝕪_S𝕠𝕟 (@UglyNenge) June 3, 2025

Thankfully, although there are now 25 more teams, the format is potentially less complicated to explain- especially those familiar with the old FIFA World Cup format. From the groups you can see below, it is a single round-robin group stage, with group winners and runners-up advancing to the knockout stage and then it will be single-legged knockouts from thereafter with both extra-time and penalties in place throughout should any game end in a draw. The only exception of mirroring the format of the World Cup is that there will be no third-place play-off.

Why Has the Competition Expanded to 32 Teams?

This revamped 32-team format will be the first of its kind, and now rather than in being annual- which will instead be the Intercontinental Cup, where the UEFA Champions League winner plays the winner of the intercontinental play-offs- it will take place during the summer, every four years.

The aim for this groundbreaking expansion is to offer clubs from all over the globe, the opportunity to shine on the biggest stage against other major, worldwide names and clubs. As well as this, there is also a major money-incentive for many clubs, with an extraordinary $1 billion prize pool. This means every single game and every single point will give some clubs invaluable income, with the screenshot above outlining the importance of this competition for the clubs involved.

With the winner of the competition receiving a jaw-dropping $125 million, it is sure to be nothing short of an entertaining and controversial month of top-quality football. Check out our article here on how to watch the Club World Cup for more information of when your team will play and where you can view the matches.

We will be covering every game of the Club World Cup on our predictions page here, with insights from our teamof in-house betting experts.