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Inter Miami’s place at the 2025 Club World Cup has been confirmed after they finished top of the league in the MLS regular season.
FIFA have given the Club World Cup a comprehensive overhaul starting from next year, moving it from an annual mid-season event to a once-every-four-years summer tournament (next year set to be held in the USA) and expanding it from the seven continental champions to 32 teams.
The prospect of Lionel Messi’s participation in the new-look tournament may well have got you wondering whether he might be set to renew an old rivalry with his former La Liga counterpart, Cristiano Ronaldo.
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FIFA have laid out new criteria for entry to the Club World Cup, with each confederation getting differing numbers of places at the tournament that are decided by different criteria on a confederation-by-confederation basis.
The spots have generally been allocated to the last few years’ worth of confederation club champions – Champions League winners, for instance – and, in some cases, a four-year ranking of every club’s performance in those kinds of competitions from 2021 to 2024.
Inter Miami are a slight exception to that: they were the beneficiaries of the USA getting an extra representative as tournament hosts.
But the upshot is that all but one of the 32 places at the tournament have already been filled – and Ronaldo’s current club, Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr, will not be among them.
Saudi clubs compete in AFC (the Asian confederation), and their slots at the Club World Cup have been taken up by Saudi rivals Al-Hilal as 2021 AFC Champions League winners, Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds, who won the 2022 edition of the Champions League; UAE outfit Al-Ain, who lifted the same trophy this year; and South Korean club Ulsan HD, who have qualified based on their four-year ranking.
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The only vacancy left to fill belongs to South American confederation CONMEBOL, who will send six clubs including this year’s as-yet-undetermined Copa Libertadores winners.
The semi-finals will take place in late October as Brazilian sides Atletico Mineiro and Botafogo take on Argentina’s River Plate and Uruguay’s Penarol, respectively.
River Plate have already qualified for the Club World Cup, however, so if they win the Libertadores next month, the final place will instead go to Paraguayan side Club Olimpia, based on their four-year ranking.
The full list of qualified teams so far is as follows, with only two non-Confederation title winning side permitted per country – so unless Ronaldo moves to one of this lot, he won’t be at the Club World Cup next year…
- AFC: Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan), Al Ain (UAE), Ulsan HD (South Korea)
- CAF: Al Ahly (Egypt), Wydad (Morocco), Eseperance de Tunis (Tunisia), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa)
- CONCACAF: Monterrey (Mexico), Seattle Sounders (USA), Leon (Mexico), Pachuca (Mexico)
- CONMEBOL: Palmeiras (Brazil), Flamengo (Brazil), Fluminense (Brazil), River Plate (Argentina), Boca Juniors (Argentina), plus one slot TBD.
- OFC: Auckland City
- UEFA: Chelsea (England), Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester City (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), PSG (France), Inter (Italy), Porto (Portugal), Benfica (Portugal), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Juventus (Italy), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Red Bull Salzburg (Austria)
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