For the first time ever, the United States will host the FIFA Club World Cup. But what is the Club World Cup, how does it fit into the organization of world soccer, and what is the history of the competition?

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What is the FIFA Club World Cup 2025?

The FIFA Club World Cup is a club tournament that has traditionally been held every year with 7 teams from the six major confederations playing for the championship. Manchester City, above, are the current champions.

However, recently the tournament has been expanded to 32 teams from the previous 7, and it will now be held every four years, rather than every year. This new system will be implemented starting with the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 in the United States. Under this new format, there are 8 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams from each group advancing to the knockout round.

As we explained briefly in this post about the history of football (and that controversial word “soccer”), world football is governed by FIFA, which is split into six regions all over the globe. Within each region, there is an annual regional club competition, with the winners of each competition automatically qualifying for the Club World Cup.

Groundhopper Paul explained it all in this video, as well:

How to Watch the Club World Cup 2025 on TV in the US

Fox Sports have the US rights for the Club World Cup. It is anticipated that every group stage and knockout game will be on one of the Fox Sports channels. You can also go see each game in person as the USA are hosts of the competition for the first time ever.

Where is the 2025 Club World Cup?

The host cities for the 2025 Club World have not been released, but it is highly likely that the tournament will be primarily held on the east coast. This is because the CONCACAF Gold Cup will also be held in the US during the summer of 2025, and will be played primarily on the west coast.

History of the Club World Cup

According to FIFA, the first “global” club tournament was held in 1909 when teams from England, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland p0layed for the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. From the early 1900s to the 1960s, several international club competitions were held outside of FIFA’s jurisdiction in Brazil and Venezuela, but in 1960 the new Intercontinental Cup was introduced.

This new competition would see the UEFA champion from Europe face off against the COMNEBOL champion from South America. Many complaints were received during the 1970s from clubs outside of Europe and South America as they were not included in this competition, but no changes were made to the competition.

The tumultuous history surrounding international club competitions continued until 2000 when the modern FIFA Club World Cup was introduced. The first version of this competition was held in Brazil and featured 8 clubs including Manchester United and Real Madrid. The first championship went to the Brazilian side Corinthians.

Due to financial difficulties, the tournament was not held from 2001-2004, but when the competition returned FIFA decided to merge the Intercontinental Cup and the Club World Championships into one competition beginning in 2005. The 2005 and 2006 tournaments included champions from the 6 confederations, but starting in 2007 the host nation also received one spot in the tournament.

After the 2000 tournament in Brazil and the 2001 version in Spain, the tournament was always held in Japan, Morocco or the Middle East.

This format lasted from 2007 to 2023 when it was decided that the competition would be expanded to 32 teams and only held every 4 years. This new system of 8 groups of 4 teams would begin in 2025 with the Club World Cup in the United States.

Because the new Club World Cup will now be held every 4 years, FIFA also introduced a new annual 6-team tournament called the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, with the first edition of this tournament scheduled for December 2024. In this tournament, the UEFA Champions League winners will face off against the team that makes it out of the knockout rounds against the remaining 5 confederations.

Real Madrid is currently the most successful club in the Club World Cup with 5 wins, followed by Barcelona with 3, and Bayern Munich and Corinthians with 2 each.

2025 Club World Cup Tickets

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