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A new FIFA Club World Cup, with 32 teams, starts in the United States on June 14 and takes place to the final on July 13.
Before the tournament, Al Jazeera takes a look at the five best discussion points:
1. The cramped program raises concerns concerning the well-being of players
FIFA’s decision to expand the club World Cup of a six or eight team tournament to an oversized edition at 32 teams was criticized by FIFPro, the Global Football Players’ Union and the World Leagues Forum (WLF).
Legitimate questions have been raised on the additional workload on players due to the increase in the number of games, and the corresponding reduction in rest and recovery time for players in a shortened season.
“The FIFA Council’s decision to plan the first edition of the FIFA club World Cup of 32 teams between June 15 and July 13, 2025 without implementing other workload guarantees from players demonstrates a lack of consideration for mental and physical health of participating players, as well as contempt for their personal and family life,” FifPro said in a press release in December.
A report Released by FIFPro and Benchmark Football in April has noted that several World Cup club players are among the most overworked for the 2024-25 season.
The report’s conclusions estimated that Federico Valverde from Real Madrid, which made 43 consecutive appearances until April 1 with less than five days of recovery time before these matches, could potentially reach 65 consecutive appearances for the club and the country by the end of the season, accumulating almost 7,000 minutes and 78 games.
The WLF, an organization representing 44 major professional leagues chaired by the chief of the Premier League, Richard Masters, said that the organization was unhappy that it was neglected in the decision -making process of FIFA.
According to the Reuters news agency, Masters accused FIFA of prioritizing its own commercial interests, adding that the June-July calendar would affect the availability of players for the national leagues at the start of the season in August.
2. Will matches be competitive?
Although the expansion of the 32 -team World Cup of clubs allows more teams to test themselves against some of the biggest names in world club football, this also raises questions about the competitiveness of the tournament.
With all groups with at least two clubs from Europe or South America, teams from other continental confederations, such as Asia or Africa, could find themselves very little chances of glory against the heavyweights of the game.
For example, in group G, the Moroccan team Wydad AC and the Pro League Al Ain water are opposed to Manchester City and Juventus, which have succeeded on the national and continental stadium.
Teams from the European Confederation (UEFA) have historically dominated the club World Cup, winning 16 of the 20 editions played to date. The other four were all won by clubs from the South American Confederation (Conmebol).
Thus, history suggests that the presence of European or South American sides could lead to unbalanced clashes in this year’s edition.
3. Where are superstars and super metal?
While Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe will play at the tournament, fans will be denied the opportunity to watch many elite artists of the 2024-25 season, such as Mohamed Salah from Liverpool, the Winner of Boot of Premier League, or teenager lamina Lamina Yamal, which won three trophies this year with Barcelona.
Salah has created the story as the first player in the history of the Premier League to finish a season with the most goals and assists as well as to win the player of the season. But one of the most fit attackers in the world will not be among the players of the United States because Liverpool could not qualify for the tournament, with Manchester City and Chelsea winning places of the English quota.
FIFA’s decision has confused the selection of FIFA teams to give a place to the host nation and to allocate it to Inter Miami, highlighting the opaque nature of the qualification criteria for the tournament which will not offer Liverpool, Barcelona or Napoli, which have all been champions crowns in three of the most prestigious leagues in Europe.
Inter Miami had entered by going beyond the classification of the regular season of the major league, despite the loss in the first round of the playoffs – a decision that criticisms claim that the despair of FIFA has a great Messi of Argentina of Inter in their first stage.
In addition to the winners of the leading competitions of the clubs of each Confederation, the teams qualified according to a classification based on their performance over a period of four years. Barcelona, the current Liga champions, missed a place due to the classification of four -year club coefficients and two -team restrictions, while their archival qualified for the Club World Cup alongside Atletico Madrid.
The Catalan giants, aligning some of the most exhilarating footballers on the planet, such as Wonderkid Yamal, 17, or the Raphinha goals genius, are a huge omission of the club -based tournament.
Prodigious talents like Romelu Lukaku and Scott Mctuminay, who inaugurated the superb load of Serie A de Napoli in 2024-25 in Italy, will not play either.
4. Introduction of a special transfer window
During the preparation of the tournament, FIFA announced the creation of a special transfer window, allowing participating clubs to make last minute transfers before their teams run the flight to the United States.
FIFA said that signatures can be made from June 1 to June 10 as well as from June 27 to July 3, explaining that the objective of this last window is to encourage clubs and players whose contracts expire “to find an appropriate solution to facilitate the participation of players”.
The introduction of this transfer window is unique because the signatures generally take place in the tight season or in the middle of the season, known as summer and winter windows for European clubs.
FIFA’s decision has led to speculations that Cristiano Ronaldo could be one of these players to put pen on paper during the window on a short -term agreement for one of the participating clubs. The Spanish newspaper Marca reported at the end of May that a Brazil club had submitted an offer to sign Ronaldo. Botafogo – One of the four Brazilian clubs in competition at the tournament – was linked to the veteran striker.
Ronaldo, 40, hinted He could leave Al Nassr After declaring that a “chapter is finished” for hours after the end of the Saudi Pro League. Al Nassr did not qualify for the club World Cup, unlike his Saudi compatriot Al Hilal, and the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, recently said “There are discussions” Above Ronaldo playing the Club World Cup.
Portugal star confirmed on Saturday that he had “Not bad” offers received Participating clubs to play for them at the tournament, but had decided not to accept them.
If a transfer from Ronaldo finally occurs, the club World Cup could see Messi and Ronaldo to face the American market, considerably increasing the interest of the media, ticket sales, television figures and improving the overall attraction of the tournament. The duo, which is undoubtedly the greatest players of their generation, played for the last time in the same competition at the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
A club that has already benefited from this special transfer window is Real Madrid, which was able to conclude an agreement with Liverpool to sign the defender Trent Alexander-Arnold Early and make it available for the tournament.
The rear right was to join the Spanish giants on a six -year agreement as a free agent after its Liverpool contract expired on June 30, but according to sport, real in Liverpool, 10 million euros ($ 11.4 million) to accelerate the process and put it on the club’s World Cup.
5. General rehearsal for the FIFA World Cup next year
In the United States, fans will have an overview of what the FIFA 2026 World Cup will look like on home when they are attending the club World Cup matches this year.
The FIFA 2026 World Cup will be co-organized by the United States alongside Canada and Mexico, taking place for more than a month with more than 100 games.
Among the 12 stadiums that will welcome the New-Look Club World Cup, some have also been chosen as places for the FIFA World Cup 2026, which will have 48 participants for the first time.
Metlife Stadium, 82,500 places in New Jersey, will host the semi-finals and the club World Cup final as well as the final of the prestigious World Cup next year.
The Mercedes-Benz Stadium of Atlanta, the financial field of Lincoln de Philadelphia, the Lumen Field of Seattle and the Hard Rock stadium in Miami are the other sites that will be involved in the two tournaments.
Sites, however, may not be filled in their full capacity as The organizers had trouble selling ticketsWith club fans, general public tickets and reception sections that are still on sale on the official FIFA website, almost two weeks from the start of the event.
