Summer club World Cup confirmed for 2025 with 32 clubs format – Who is interested in this nonsense? | OneFootball

I am guessing you have been overwhelmed with excitement due to the 2023 Club World Cup that is currently being played out.

What do you mean you didn’t have a club it was happening?

As for those of you who were aware it was happening, what do you mean you aren’t besides yourself with excitement?

There are seven clubs fighting out the ‘honour’ of becoming the 2023 Club World Cup champions, with Auckland City, Leon, Manchester City, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahly, Fluminense and Urawa Red Diamonds competing in Saudi Arabia.

The excitement in Saudi Arabia is obvious, a crowd of 2,025 having turned up in Jeddah on Friday to see Urawa Red Diamond wins 1-0 against Leon.

You would almost think that it is a pointless competition that nobody is interested in, certainly not any football fan whose team isn’t involved. This has been the case ever since FIFA starting putting on this Club World Cup competition.

Which is of course why FIFA have now announced that rather than scrapping this ridiculous nonsense, they are naturally going to expand it to 32 clubs AND play it over a full month!

Yes, summer 2025 will see the first 32 club FIFA Club World Cup played in the United States, the competition running from 25 June to 13 July 2025.

FIFA, UEFA and all the rest, desperately fighting for power and influence, which they believe they will get by putting on bigger and bigger competitions.

The next World Cup finals  (the proper one!) will have 48 countries (up from 32) competing when played in 2026 in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The 2024/25 Champions League will see 36 and not 32 clubs competing.

Whilst before 2016, there used to be 16 countries that qualified for the European Championships, now it is 24 countries, which will be the case in Germany in Summer 2024.

Whilst both UEFA and FIFA have shown transparent greed for more money and power with expansions of the World Cup, European Championships and Champions League, at least these competitions have a natural audience, interest all around the globe.

However, nobody is interested currently in the Club World Cup, nobody has ever been interested in the Club World Cup, so why would they suddenly be interested in a new version with loads more clubs in? Especially when the qualification for this 2025 Club World Cup is just made up as they go along.

BBC Sport report on announcement of 2025 Club World Cup – 17 December 2023:

‘Fifa has announced the first 32-team Club World Cup from 2025 will be played in the United States from 15 June to 13 July.

The tournament will feature clubs from each of the six confederations, with Europe entering 12 teams.

Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City have qualified automatically as the most recent Champions League winners in the four-year cycle.

Arsenal would also be entered if they win the Champions League this season.

Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto and Benfica have also secured places in the tournament in 2025 via the coefficient pathway.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino confirmed the news at a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

The revamped format will be played in the same slot where Fifa has previously held the Confederations Cup for international teams, a year before the World Cup.

Football’s world governing body said the summer dates had been set to ensure the scheduling aligns with the international match calendar, and to allow sufficient rest time before the start of the domestic seasons.

However, head of the Professional Footballers’ Association Maheta Molango said Fifa’s persistence to go ahead with the expansion shows a lack of concern for player welfare.

“Players have become pawns in a battle for primacy between football’s governing bodies,” he added. “With no-one willing to take a step back or to work collaboratively to create a sustainable calendar.

“These decisions have consequences – not just for players who are being pushed until they break. But for the future quality of these tournaments, with players becoming injured or withdrawing from games as they make their own decisions about how to manage what have become ridiculous demands.”

In a statement, Fifpro, the world players’ union, said there was also “a disregard” for players’ “personal and family lives”.

It added: “The expanded competition will undercut the rest and recovery time of these players at the end of the 2024-25 season, and further disrupt national employment markets by changing the balance between national and international competitions.

“Players will have to perform at the end of an 11-month season with little prospect of getting enough rest before the following season starts.

“The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game is the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance, and risks to career longevity.”

Fifa also announced a new Intercontinental Cup competition from December 2024, which will see the winners of the Champions League face a team that comes through intercontinental play-offs.

The Club World Cup is currently held annually, mid-season, with seven teams from six confederations.

Treble winners City, who won their first Champions League trophy in June, face Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds in Saudi Arabia on 19 December.’