The 2025 Club World Cup in the United States is shaping up not only to be a warmup for the FIFA World Cup a year later, but also one of the most highly anticipated football events of the current four-year cycle.
FIFA has reshuffled the annual club event in an attempt to make it more visible, more competitive, and more coveted.
Instead of a nearly-forgotten seven-team tournament shoved in the middle of the club season, the tournament will now be held once every four years and feature a whopping 32 clubs competing for a trophy with much higher stakes.
The process for selecting the clubs came under some discussion as FIFA went about choosing which 32 clubs from around the world will participate.
The Sporting News explains how clubs are selected, particularly those from the host nation USA and its domestic league MLS.
How are teams selected for the 2025 Club World Cup?
The 32 teams in the 2025 Club World Cup hail from all around the world, making the competition a truly global tournament.
The confederation with the most clubs is, as expected, UEFA, who feature 12 teams in the 2025 tournament. They bring some of the world’s most prominent and renowned clubs, such as Man City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and PSG among many others.
Meanwhile, CONMEBOL bring six clubs, while CAF, AFC, and CONCACAF all get four competitive berths each and OFC gets one. Finally, the host nation gets one nominee to round out the field.
Most confederations nominated the winner of their continental competition each of the previous four years as their main representatives at the Club World Cup. The tricky part is rounding out the field when the same club wins the continental competition in multiple years.
For example, Al Ahly won three of the four CAF Champions League titles in the current four-year cycle, meaning two African clubs were nominated to participate based on the confederation’s ranking system.
| Confederation | Club | Country | Qualified Via |
| AFC | Al Hilal | Saudi Arabia | 2021 AFC Champions League winners |
| Urawa Red Diamonds | Japan | 2022 AFC Champions League winners | |
| Al Ain | UAE | 2023/24 AFC Champions League winners | |
| Ulsan HD | South Korea | Next highest-ranked AFC club not qualified | |
| CAF | Al Ahly | Egypt | 2020/21, 2022/23, 2023/24 CAF Champions League winners |
| Wydad Casablanca | Morocco | 2021/22 CAF Champions League winners | |
| Esperance de Tunis | Tunisia | Next highest-ranked CAF club not qualified | |
| Mamelodi Sundowns | South Africa | Next highest-ranked CAF club not qualified | |
| CONCACAF | Monterrey | Mexico | 2021 CONCACAF Champions League winners |
| Seattle Sounders | USA | 2022 CONCACAF Champions League winners | |
| Los Angeles FC* | USA | 2023 CONCACAF Champions League runners-up | |
| Pachuca | Mexico | 2024 CONCACAF Champions League winners | |
| Inter Miami | USA | Host nation nominee | |
| CONMEBOL | Palmeiras | Brazil | 2021 Copa Libertadores winners |
| Flamengo | Brazil | 2022 Copa Libertadores winners | |
| Fluminense | Brazil | 2023 Copa Libertadores winners | |
| Botafogo | Brazil | 2024 Copa Libertadores winners | |
| River Plate | Argentina | Next highest-ranked CONMEBOL club not qualified | |
| Boca Juniors | Argentina | Next highest-ranked CONMEBOL club not qualified | |
| OFC | Auckland City | New Zealand | Highest-ranked of last 4 OFC Champions League winners |
| UEFA | Chelsea | England | 2020/21 UEFA Champions League winners |
| Real Madrid | Spain | 2021/22 & 2023/24 UEFA Champions League winners | |
| Man City | England | 2022/23 UEFA Champions League winners | |
| Bayern Munich | Germany | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| PSG | France | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Inter Milan | Italy | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Porto | Portugal | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Benfica | Portugal | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Borussia Dortmund | Germany | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Juventus | Italy | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Atletico Madrid | Spain | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified | |
| Red Bull Salzburg | Austria | Next highest-ranked UEFA club not qualified |
*LAFC won a play-in game against Club America to qualify for the tournament. They took the place of Club Leon, who were expelled due to FIFA rules on multi-club ownership.
Why are Inter Miami in the Club World Cup and not the MLS champions?
Inter Miami were awarded the host nation nomination for the final participant slot at the 2025 Club World Cup.
CONCACAF’s official competitive explanation was that Inter Miami were this year’s Supporters’ Shield winners as regular season champions, and thus deserving of the host nation slot.
However, the presence of Lionel Messi at the tournament is largely considered the thinly veiled reason for their participation over any other club.
This is made obvious by how much FIFA are leaning into Miami in this competition, with the draw taking place in the city and Inter Miami already confirmed to be one of the participants in the opening game of the tournament.
With the 2024 MLS Cup final not taking place until after the Club World Cup draw, the host-nation participant would not yet be determined by the time of the draw had they decided to give this year’s league winner — Los Angeles Galaxy — the spot.
Thus, FIFA took the easy choice of nominating Inter Miami instead.
