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Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool are reportedly among the clubs who share ‘concern’ after missing out on the 2025 Club World Cup.
The Club World Cup, organised by FIFA, has been completely revamped this year and will feature a total of 32 teams, 12 of which are European.
It previously only featured seven teams from around the globe but the competition has a new look this year with a huge prize pot up for grabs.
Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus are all taking part.
Whichever team wins the expanded Club World Cup will receive up to $125.8m (£93.2m) in prize money.
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According to The Guardian, a number of big teams across Europe have been left ‘concerned’ over missing out on the Club World Cup financial boost – including Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Barcelona and AC Milan.
After lobbying from teams who failed to qualify for the $1bn (£740m) tournament, FIFA will now hold a consultation about expanding the Club World Cup again to 48 teams when it next takes place in four years’ time.
Why are Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool not playing in the Club World Cup?
Current Premier League champions Liverpool won’t be playing at the Club World Cup in 2025 – nor will the top-flight runners-up Arsenal.
The same is true for United, who just endured a horrific 2024-25 campaign but remain one of the biggest clubs in England.
It’s because of FIFA’s qualification rules, with only 12 of the 32 spots at the Club World Cup handed to European teams.
The European places were awarded based on Champions League performances between the 2020/21 and 2023/24 seasons.
Under FIFA’s rules, the Champions League winners from the last four seasons (2021-2024 for this Club World Cup) gain automatic qualification.
That’s why Chelsea and City are taking part, because they both landed the Champions League trophy in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
The other eight spaces – for the teams who didn’t win the Champions League in the last four seasons – were picked based on a UEFA ranking system.
FIFA ‘open-minded’ about Club World Cup 2029
After this summer’s Club World Cup, talks with all stakeholders about the future of the competition’s structure are set to be held.
Fifa’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, told The Athletic last week that options were open for the 2029 tournament.
‘For the future we are very open-minded to look at formats and so on that we will discuss with the clubs and with the confederations,’ he said.
‘I believe strongly in the future of this competition.’
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