FIFA had a council meeting on Tuesday in which they mostly talked about money and patted their own backs, saying they are the best organization in the universe since the Big Bang. But, hey! They also talked about soccer, revealing the number of teams representing each confederation in the revamped Club World Cup to be played in 2025.
If you were living inside a bubble, FIFA announced last year their plan to expand the Club World Cup from seven to 32 teams starting in 2025.
Because, yes, more money.
Confederations slots for the 2025 Club World Cup
Considering "a set of objective metrics and criteria," FIFA decided to allocate slots as follows:
- AFC (Asia): 4 teams
- CAF (Africa): 4 teams
- Concacaf (North, Central America and Caribbean): 4 teams
- CONMEBOL (South America): 6 teams
- UEFA: 12 teams
- OFC (Oceania): 1 team
- Host nation: 1 team
So far, FIFA has not announced where the tournament will be held, but they just anticipated it to be played in June-July 2025.
Concacaf highlights from FIFA Council meeting:
Expanded Club World Cup will take place in June/July 2025. Concacaf allocated four of the 32 slots
Auto-qualify for 2026
2024 Copa América on the international match calendar June 14-July 13, 2024https://t.co/QTltgTGK6s— Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) February 14, 2023
Recently, the Mexican Football Federation said Concacaf and FIFA would have a tournament to test the 2026 World Cup stadiums in the summer of 2025. Is the Club World Cup that tournament?
Let me dream.
The 2023 Club World Cup will continue to be played in the current format of seven teams and will be held in Saudi Arabia.
FIFA's last announcement of the day was that Canada, México and the United States, organizers of the 2026 World Cup, are automatically qualified for the tournament.
Yay!