Club World Cup 2025, with 32 teams: what will be the criteria to qualify and the possibilities of Boca, River and the rest of the Argentines

This Tuesday, the fifa has released more details on the organization of the upcoming 2026 Soccer World Cup, with 48 teams, which will take place in North America. But he also revealed more details about the Club World Cup with 32 teamsthe big news arriving on the football planet, which will have its first edition in June 2025based to confirm.

In one of the last meetings of the body chaired by the lawyer Gianni Infantino it was known how many seats each confederation will have, be Uefa the most advantaged, with 12 teams from Europe participating in the competition, twice as many as conmebol, which will only have 6 combined. Asia, Africa and Concacaf will have 4 each. While Oceania and the host country will respectively have a seat.

There will be lottery, groups, final stages, a super champion who will take glory, like at the World Cup, and dollar prizes for all participants, with figures that have not yet been revealed but will be in the millions.

The big question that has been raised to date was how these teams from each confederation would be chosen, and it was FIFA that was in charge of setting the classification rules for the event.which already has some teams with a guaranteed presence.

Through the communication that was made known by Rwanda, the venue of the congress which was attended by various leaders of Argentine football, such as Claudius Tapia, Victor White AND david boythe parent company of world football has emphasized the importance of sporting merit when ranking.

For this reason, the 32 teams that will play this “super” Club World Cup will access it according to a series of parameters, based on the time course that began in 2021 and will end in 2024.

In confederations with more than 4 places, this is UEFA and Conmebol, the last four champions of the most important continental tournament of the region will qualify (Champions League OR liberators, respectively). The remaining teams will do so through a ranking or coefficient from each confederation. In the event that a champion repeats, there will be an extra spot for those who enter through that merit ranking.

In Europe, Chelsea AND real Madrid, the last two samples, would already be inside. They will be joined by the winner of the Champions League this year and next. The rest? It’s time to get out your calculator and start calculating the “UEFA coefficient”: Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, PSG, Manchester United and Barcelona (as well as Real Madrid and Chelsea) are at the top of that ranking which calculates participations and successes in the last continental competitions.

Here, when we talk about UEFA, we will have to put a big asterisk: it is that out of the four classified to be champions, the classification will have a quota of two clubs per country. For example, if Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United are not Champions League champions but enter through the table, only two of them will.

Club World Cup 2025: what happens with Conmebol and the Argentines

And what happens on this side of the world? In the case of South America, palmeiras (champion in 2021) e flamenco (in 2022) they would already have the insured ticket. The 2023 champion (to be known after the final on November 4) and next year’s champion would complete that combination of ‘champions’. The other two would enter the “Conmebol ranking”, a ranking made up of historical values ​​and current performances, which becomes relevant at the start of each Libertadores to define privileges at the time of the draws and the group assembly.

According to the December 2022 table, the latest published, Flat River in first place, followed by Palmeiras and Flamengo (which would already be classified). Boca Juniorsin fourth place, it would also have access. Guild from Porto Alegre, National of Montevideo, Atletico Paranaense, Penarol from Uruguay, together with St. Paul AND Saintsboth Brazilians, they are in fifth to tenth place.

The rest of the Argentines are somewhat removed from the vanguard positions: Independent de Avellaneda (did not qualify for any cups this year) appears in 13th place, Velez Sarsfield (semifinalist in 2022) is 20th, while racing club AND students of La Plata they are located respectively at 22nd and 23rd.

Another asterisk? FIFA also warns that each confederation will formalize the match criteria, while insisting on the importance of sporting criteria. For this we will have to wait for official confirmation from Conmebol to start looking at that table and each of its parameters with different eyes between now and December 2024.

As for the rest of the world, those classified for the Club World Cup in Africa, Asia and Conmebol, the bill is simple: the last four champions of the respective continental tournaments will do it. Finally, Oceania and the host country will have their own criteria to define the chosen teams.