How are teams ranked for the FIFA Club World Cup?

If you thought you were going to enjoy a summer of respite in 2025, think again! The biggest and (potentially) best FIFA Club World Cup will slap you in the face from every angle.

The incessant flow of club football will not stop beyond the close of the 2024/25 campaigns around the world. In an attempt to rejuvenate what has long been regarded in European quarters as a fairly insignificant event, FIFA has expanded its Club World Cup to 32 teams with the best outfits in the world competing for the right to win the status of “world champion”.

However, whether the “world’s best” will be competing in the US next summer is another matter. Several clubs destined for stellar 2024/25 seasons are not among the teams involved in the 2025 Club World Cup.

So how did the teams qualify for the extended tournament? 90 minutes it breaks the FIFA process.

All six confederations will be represented at the 2025 Club World Cup, but each has a different number of places for the tournament. UEFA has the most with 12 teams competing, CONMEBOL has six, while AFC, CAF and CONCACAF have four each. The OFC has only one, and the final spot was designated for a representative of the host country.

For the 2025 tournament, FIFA took into account the past four seasons’ performances in the confederation’s respective main club competitions: the UEFA Champions Leaguefor example

Any continental champions from 2021 (in confederations with four or more places) automatically qualified for the tournament, while other teams progressed through the FIFA qualification route.

In all confederations except UEFA, teams were awarded three points for a win in their respective main club competitions, one point for a draw and three points for advancing to the next stage.

The system was slightly different for European clubs competing in the Champions League. FIFA, as part of its qualifying criteria, instead awarded two points for a win, one for a draw, four for group stage qualification, five for progression to the last 16 and one point for progression to each phase of the competition. after

Those who accumulated the most qualification points within each federation qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup. With UEFA having 12 places available and only three different Champions League winners from 2021, nine teams qualified through the classification CONMEBOL, meanwhile, had six places and four different Copa Libertadores winners, so there were only two places available.

Few qualification restrictions are imposed for the expanded Club World Cup, but only a maximum of two clubs from the same country can go through the qualification route.

This restriction excludes those who qualify by winning the confederation’s main club competition during the four-year period. Four Brazilian teams have won the previous four Copa Libertadores titles, for example, and all four have qualified for the tournament.

Clubs classified as continental champions

Clubs classified by ranking

hosts

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