Procedures confirmed ahead of FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ draw in Miami
FIFA has confirmed the procedures for the highly anticipated FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ draw to be held in Miami, USA, on Thursday, 5 December 2024 at 13:00 local time (19:00 CET).
The procedures feature several key principles to ensure competitive balance and geographical diversity throughout the group stage and, depending on sporting results, into the knockout stage.
The qualified clubs for the first-ever 32-team FIFA Club World Cup™ have been allocated to four pots of eight teams each, with the respective confederation rankings that were used as part of the qualification process for the competition applied to determine the position of each club within their confederation and allocate them to a pot accordingly.
Pot 1 consists of the four highest-ranked teams from Europe together with the four highest-ranked teams from South America, while pot 2 consists of the remaining eight teams from Europe.
Pot 3 consists of the two highest-ranked teams respectively from Asia, Africa, and the North, Central America and Caribbean region, alongside South America’s two remaining clubs, while pot 4 consists of the two remaining teams respectively from Asia, Africa, and the North, Central America and Caribbean region, alongside Oceania’s representative and the team representing the host country – Inter Miami CF.
FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ pot allocation
Pot 1: Manchester City (ENG), Real Madrid C. F. (ESP), FC Bayern München (GER), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), CR Flamengo (BRA), SE Palmeiras (BRA), CA River Plate (ARG), Fluminense FC (BRA)
Pot 2: Chelsea FC (ENG), Borussia Dortmund (GER), FC Internazionale Milano (ITA), FC Porto (POR), Atlético de Madrid (ESP), SL Benfica (POR), Juventus FC (ITA), FC Salzburg (AUT)
Pot 3: Al Hilal (KSA), Ulsan HD (KOR), Al Ahly FC (EGY), Wydad AC (MAR), CF Monterrey (MEX), Club León (MEX), CA Boca Juniors (ARG), Botafogo (BRA)
Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN), Al Ain FC (UAE), Espérance Sportive de Tunisie (TUN), Mamelodi Sundowns FC (RSA), CF Pachuca (MEX), Seattle Sounders FC (USA), Auckland City FC (NZL), Inter Miami CF (USA)
Draw constraints – snapshot
Several constraints will be implemented throughout the draw, including the general principle that no group can feature more than one team from the same confederation. This applies to all confederations except UEFA (Europe), which will be represented by 12 clubs at the tournament. Therefore, four of the eight groups will feature two European clubs.
A paired seeding principle based on the confederation rankings will be applied to the teams of pot 1 when allocating their respective groups.
Other constraints will dictate that clubs from the same member association cannot be grouped together and all clubs from pot 1 will be allocated to the first position of the group into which they are drawn.
Additionally, for scheduling purposes, both clubs from the USA – Inter Miami CF and Seattle Sounders FC – will be automatically allocated to fourth position in groups A and B respectively. Inter Miami CF will play in the opening match of the tournament at Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, while the Sounders will open their campaign at Lumen Field, Seattle, soon afterwards.
The full match schedule comprising the stadium and kick-off time for each fixture will be finalized and published once the draw has taken place, taking into account a range of factors including sporting and player-centric criteria, local and travelling fans and global broadcast considerations.
