FIFA have announced the details of the extended Club World Cup and also confirmed that four African teams will take part.
The FIFA Council met ahead of the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and took key decisions in relation to the new extended Club World Cup, which will be played in the United States in 2025.
“The competition’s official name will be Mundial de Clubes FIFA and will feature clubs from each of the six confederations,” FIFA stated.
“The Council unanimously confirmed the club ranking methodology to be used as part of the key principles of access, which were approved at the Council’s meeting in March 2023.
“The first edition of the tournament will take place from 15 June to 13 July 2025.
“The format of the competition was confirmed as follows:
- A group stage composed of eight groups of four teams per group playing in a single-game round-robin format
- The top two teams per group progressing to the round of 16
- A direct single-match knockout stage from the round of 16 to the final
- No third-place play-off
The competition will therefore follow the same format as the FIFA World Cup 2022™ and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, with the exception that there will be no play-off for third place.”
FIFA also confirmed the participating teams and allocation per federation, with Al Ahly and Wydad AC confirmed as two of the four African participants so far.
All participating teams so far:
