FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, announces that new Men’s Club World Cup will take place in 2025
FIFA president, Gianni Infantino has confirmed that FIFA will launch a 32-team men’s Club World Cup in 2025.
The new Club World Cup concept was initially meant to launch in China in 2021 with 24 teams but was cancelled due to the pandemic – and is now set for a further expansion from June 2025.
In a press conference ahead of Argentina vs France final on Sunday, the FIFA president dropped several bombshells after claiming that Qatar 2022 was ‘the best World Cup ever’.
Infantino said: “We have approved a 48-team World Cup format with 16 groups of three, of which the top two would then move to a knockout phase of 32, followed by 16, eight, four and then two.
“I have to say that after this World Cup and the success of the groups of four, and looking as well at some other competitions like the Euros for example where you have 24 teams and the top two plus the best third ones go to the next stage.
“Here, the groups of four have been absolutely incredible in the sense that until the last minute of the last match, you wouldn’t know who goes through. We will have to revisit or at least rediscuss the format – whether we go for 16 groups of three or 12 groups of four. This is something that will certainly be on the agenda in the next meetings.”
Infantino, who branded the Qatar World Cup as the “best ever”, revealed a number of decisions following a FIFA council meeting, including plans to launch a new friendly ‘World Series’ tournament involving four teams, each selected from four different confederations.
The FIFA president confirmed the 2022 Club World Cup will be held in Morocco in February next year and will feature seven teams, including Real Madrid as European champions. The larger competition, set for 2025, will take place every four years.
The international match calendar will also be altered from 2025, with one extended break spanning four matches in late September and early October replacing two separate windows in September and October. The other windows in November, March, and June would remain unchanged.