FIFA Club World Cup 2025: City’s first appearances at major tournaments | OneFootball

This summer’s FIFA Club World Cup represents a new dawn for elite club football.

Freshly expanded into a 32-team month-long festival, this year’s inaugural edition of the new format sees many of the world’s best sides competing in 11 US cities.

City previously lifted the FIFA Club World Cup in 2023, when just seven teams were in attendance in Saudi Arabia, with the Blues needing to play just twice to earn the crown.

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This time around, we’re in a one of eight groups of four alongside Wydad AC, Al Ain and Juventus – with all four sides competing for the right to play in the Round of 16.

From that point, there will be single knockout ties played across the US with the ultimate goal of reaching the final at the MetLife Stadium on 13 July.

WATCH: Gvardiol: We could achieve something really special at FIFA Club World Cup

This competition is scheduled to be played every four years, with only the most successful sides of the previous qualification window making it.

It’s a dynamic addition to an already thorough football calendar, with City aiming to add yet another piece of silverware to our trophy cabinet.

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We’ve won so much in our storied 131-year history as Manchester City, including 10 top-flight titles and seven FA Cups, as well as continental prizes such as the Champions League and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

But how did we fare in each tournament during our first appearance? We take a look back here…

First Division

After five seasons battling to get promoted from the Second Division following our renaming as Manchester City, we finally arrived in the top-flight in 1899/00.

That means it’s now been 126 years since our first game in the top tier of English football!

WATCH: 1968 Division One title highlights: Newcastle 3-4 City

English football was dominated by sides from the north and the midlands in those days, with no London teams appearing in this year’s league table.

We finished a respectable seventh out of 18 that season, claiming 13 wins from our 34 games.

Billy Meredith, widely considered football’s first superstar, was our top scorer with 14 goals.

We would have to wait until 1936/37 for our maiden First Division title and we then won it once more in 1967/68 before it rebranded as the Premier League in 1992.

FA Cup

Our first ever FA Cup appearance as Manchester City was not one that many looked back on with fondness, with First Division title hopefuls Preston North End defeating us 6-0 in the first round.

We wouldn’t have too long to wait until our first FA Cup triumph though, winning the trophy in 1904.

WATCH: Manchester's First Trophy

With the most recent of our seven successes coming in 2023, that means the 119-year gap between first and most recent FA Cup win is the record longest.

League Cup

First introduced in 1960/61, the League Cup supplemented the league and FA Cup programme that had largely existed since the formalisation of the game.

Our first ever League Cup encounter came against neighbours Stockport County – with Joe Hayes and a Denis Law brace seeing us through.

Unfortunately, defeat at Portsmouth followed in the next round.

Our first triumph came in 1970 and was backed up in 1976, before six wins in eight seasons between 2014 and 2021.

WATCH: Wembley wonders: Celebrating City's eight League Cup triumphs

With eight League Cup trophies in total, we are the second most successful side in this competition’s history.

Cup Winners Cup

Before the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League grew to their current scales, the Cup Winners Cup ensured due reward for domestic cup winners of the previous season.

City played in the competition twice in successive seasons to great success.

WATCH: Watch: Celebrations after our first European trophy!

We won the tournament in 1969/70 as part of a double alongside the League Cup, beating Athletic Club, Lierse, Academica, Schalke and Gornik Zabrze on the way.

That earned us a return the following season, with City this time getting to the semi-finals before defeat to eventual champions Chelsea.

The competition was merged with the UEFA Cup in 1999.

Premier League

The ‘old’ First Division in all but name, the Premier League came along in 1992 as the top tier of English football.

With eight titles since this rebrand, we’re the second most successful club of the era.

However, that kind of status in the game looked along way off for much of the 1990s.

WATCH: Sergio Aguero | Season One

Despite the difficulties to come, 1992/93 was a solid start to this brave new world – finishing ninth out of 22 with 57 points from 42 games.

David White was our top scorer with 16 goals from 42 appearances, while the likes of Tony Coton, Keith Curle and Niall Quinn were also backbones of the side.

Since Sergio Aguero’s iconic 93:20 goal in 2012 earned us a maiden Premier League title, we’ve been the dominant team in the division – topping the table in eight of the 14 seasons.

UEFA Cup/Europa League

The UEFA Cup was introduced in 1971 as the second-tier continental competition behind the European Cup/Champions League.

City’s first appearance in the competition came in 1972 but didn’t last long, with Spanish side Valencia beating us home and away to progress through the knockout tie.

We suffered first round exits in our next two appearances too, before a run to the quarter-finals in 1978/79 and again in 2008/09.

Now named the Europa League, we also appeared in this tournament in 2010/11 and 2011/12.

European Cup/Champions League

Having won the First Division title in 1968, one of City’s prizes was European Cup qualification in 1968/69.

City were drawn against Fenerbahce in the first round, but Joe Mercer’s team didn’t show our best over the two-legged tie.

WATCH: City's dramatic journey to becoming European champions

A goalless draw at Maine Road was followed by a 2-1 defeat in Turkey.

Our first appearance in the Champions League, after its rebrand in 1992, came in 2011/12.

With a maiden Premier League title also on our minds, City were handed a group of death against Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villarreal.

We were edged out into third with 10 points from six matches and dropped into the Europa League.

That was the first of what will next season be 15 successive year as part of this exclusive competition.

Over the years, late goals and heartbreaking misses tormented City as we chased the biggest prize in European club football.

All of that was finally forgotten in 2023, when Rodri’s goal in Istanbul saw us overcome Inter to deservedly lift the famous trophy for the first time.

WATCH: City 1-0 Inter: Official short film

FIFA Club World Cup

This summer we head to the new version of the FIFA Club World Cup.

The previous format of this competition still exists and has now been renamed the FIFA Intercontinental Cup – with the winners of each continent’s premier competition all heading to one location for a short tournament.

That’s what we won in Jeddah in December 2023, with emphatic victories over Urawa Red Diamonds and Fluminense.

WATCH: Highlights: City 4-0 Fluminense

Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva and an own goal took us past the Japanese side in the last four.

In the final, Julian Alvarez scored twice with Phil Foden and another own goal adding gloss to the scoreline.

How to follow the FIFA Club World Cup 2025

DAZN will broadcast every minute from the event, with all 63 matches, live-streamed, free to view on DAZN globally, and in multiple languages.

If you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the competition is part of your current membership.

To sign up for a free DAZN account now you only need an email address to register, with no hidden costs or fees.

You can then watch all the action on the DAZN App via smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, streaming devices, game consoles and web browsers.

Join now to be ready to watch DAZN’s coverage for free.

Every City match will be covered in full across mancity.com and our official app, with our usual offering of a Matchday Centre and Matchday Live followed by a match report, written and video reaction and highlights from the US.