FIFA, the international governing body of organized soccer, announced on Monday that the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup would feature an extended format as the tournament comes to the United States ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will be played in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The Club World Cup is a tournament that features the best teams from confederations across the globe. It represents the rare chance when clubs play competitive matches across continents.
Up to this point, the Club World Cup had been a yearly competition, but FIFA announced it will now be held every four years, similar to the international World Cup.
While the 2026 World Cup, the far more important and notorious event, will be played across the three aforementioned nations of Canada, Mexico and the United States, the Club World Cup will be limited to the United States.
Recent winners include Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Liverpool, and due to the expanded nature of the event, a host of these teams will compete in the tournament.
The Seattle Sounders represented America and Major League Soccer for the first time in the competition, as they qualified through the CONCACAF Champions League in 2022.
Some participants for the 2025 event have already been determined, as teams qualified by winning the Club World Cup in recent years, but most spots will be qualified for in the coming years.
