Major clubs missing at 2025 Club World Cup in USA

The 32-team field for the 2025 Club World Cup is coming together. The completion of the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals locked up the 12 allocated spots from Europe.

Everything is set in stone for the revised Club World Cup, which is coming to the US in 2025. It will bring together the 32 teams who have performed the best over the last four years, according to UEFA. Next year’s Club World Cup will take place from June 15 to July 13.

Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, came up with the idea for the organization’s newest and most prominent member. However, many of the top European soccer teams will not participate in the latest edition of the Club World Cup. In 2025, a record 32 teams will play in the competition. Even with this new expansion, many of the game’s biggest names didn’t make the cut.

Who will miss 2025 Club World Cup?

Along with Manchester United, Liverpool and AC Milan, Barcelona will not compete after Tuesday’s 4-1 home loss to Paris Saint-Germain. The result brought them crashing out of the Champions League quarterfinals on aggregate with a 6-4 defeat.

In addition, after losing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Arsenal will also not be participating. Atletico Madrid will take the field instead of Barcelona. Both teams lost in the Champions League. But with a superior coefficient position than the Blaugrana, Atleti became the 22nd team to qualify.

Also not participating will be Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be 40 years old and now playing for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. It is unclear whether Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, the team he plays for in Major League Soccer, will feature.

Participants in the tournament next summer

Of the 32 teams, six will represent CONMEBOL (South America), four will represent AFC (Asia), and two each from CAF (Africa) and CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean). There will be one representative from OFC (Oceania) and another from the host country (the United States next year).

On this iteration of the UEFA Champions League, the three teams with the most recent European titles—Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Chelsea—are automatically qualified. Also joining them are Atletico, Bayern, PSG, Inter, Porto, Dortmund, Benfica, Juventus, and Salzburg. All of which are based on those four-year UEFA coefficient rankings.

These will be eligible if they win the major club competition of their confederation from 2021–2024. Or eventually, if they finish in the top ten of that tournament’s club rankings during that time.

In addition, Palmeiras, Flamengo, and Fluminense of Brazil, and Mexican teams Club Leon and Monterrey have already secured their spots. There are also Seattle Sounders (US), Egyptian team Al Ahly, Wydad Casablanca of Morocco, Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan), Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia), and New Zealand’s Auckland City.

Each team competes in one of eight four-team groups. The format is identical to that of the World Cup and the European Championship. There will be three games apiece, followed by a single-leg knockout round to determine the winners.

PHOTOS: IMAGO.