United States to host expanded 32-team Club World Cup in 2025

MIAMI – The United States will stage a new-look expanded 32-team Club World Cup in 2025, football’s global governing body Fifa announced on Friday.

The move also means the US will host major tournaments for three successive summers, culminating in the 2026 World Cup which will be co-hosted with Mexico and Canada.

In 2024, an expanded Copa America, featuring national teams from South America and the Concacaf region, is scheduled to be held on American soil.

The existing Club World Cup, which began in 2000, has struggled to capture global attention and Fifa president Gianni Infantino has long targeted an expansion to bring the top clubs from Europe, South America and the rest of the world into a tournament format.

The most recent edition was held in Morocco in February and featured just seven teams.

“The Club World Cup 2025 will be the pinnacle of elite professional men’s club football,” said Infantino. “And, 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,” said Infantino.

While many of the qualification slots remain to be decided, the tournament will feature the likes of Spanish giants Real Madrid, the English Premier League’s Manchester City and Chelsea, Brazilian clubs Flamengo and Palmeiras, Mexican team Leon and Seattle Sounders from Major League Soccer.

The dates, host cities and match schedule for the tournament will be established at a later date, Fifa added.

The governing body decided in February that the new competition will feature 12 teams from Europe, six from South America and four representatives each from Asia, Africa and Concacaf, which includes North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The Oceania region will also be given one slot and the host nation is guaranteed a place in the tournament.

The European participants will include the last five winners of the Champions League, while teams from South America will qualify through the Copa Libertadores and Conmebol’s rankings.

The new tournament will, like the national team World Cup, be held every four years.

The last edition in the smaller format is scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia in December.

Fifa is setting up operations in the US, with offices in Miami. The world governing body of football recently signed an agreement to work jointly with Concacaf on regional tournaments such as the Gold Cup and Nations League.

It also announced on Friday that it was pushing back the decision on the host of the 2030 World Cup from September or October to the second half of 2024 “to ensure additional consultation with all key stakeholders”.

“The relevant bidding regulations will be presented for approval at the next Fifa Council meeting, due to take place in September/October 2023, with the bidding process to be officially launched thereafter,” Fifa said.

“The expected appointment of the host(s) by the Fifa Congress will also move from Q3 2024 to Q4 2024.”

The Fifa Congress is due to take place in Bangkok on May 17, 2024.

Fifa also appointed Indonesia as host for the Under-17 World Cup later in 2023, three months after the South-east Asian country was stripped of the Under-20 World Cup, which was then held in Argentina.

The decision to stop Indonesia holding the event was taken after the country’s football federation cancelled the draw because the governor of the largely Hindu island of Bali refused to host Israel’s team.

Indonesia was awarded the Nov 10 to Dec 2 tournament after Peru was stripped of the rights, having failed to fulfil infrastructure commitments due to delays in execution. AFP, REUTERS