FIFA has approved plans to expand the Club World Cup to 32 teams for the 2025 tournament.
In December, following FIFA's plans to expand the World Cup, Gianni Infantino announced the Club World Cup will be be played between 32 teams in two years time. Those proposals have now been given the green light.
A total of 12 of the 32 places will go to teams in Europe. Eight of those will be decided by UEFA's coefficient rankings while the other four will go to the winners of the Champions League from 2022 to 2025. This means that Real Madrid have qualified for the tournament already having beaten Liverpool in last season's final.
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The coefficient rankings are based upon a club's performance in UEFA club competitions. And Man City are well placed to secure a spot in 2025 if they don't claim the Champions League between now and then.
Currently, Pep Guardiola's side sit second in the rankings behind Bayern Munich. However, to spread qualification out among the countries, only two teams from the same country can qualify via the coefficient route.
So if the competition was based on today's rankings, the Blues and Liverpool would be present for the tournament due to being second and third in the table. Chelsea are fourth and United sit seventh.
Erik ten Hag's side remain in the Europa League and are well placed to be in next season's Champions League with the chance to further boost their ranking or even potentially win the tournament in the next three years.
It remains to be seen when the 2025 Club World Cup will take place and how the fixture schedule will look. FIFA is planning on playing the tournament in June and July, shortly after the end of the regular Premier League season.
Hopes had been high among the international governing body that a 24-team tournament would be played in 2021 but that was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. In December 2023, the Club World Cup will be hosted in Saudi Arabia in a seven-team format which will include the winner's of this year's Champions League as the sole European representative.
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