FIFA has confirmed the 12 stadiums that will stage the inaugural Club World Cup in the United States next summer.
The Athletic reported last week that FIFA president Gianni Infantino had promised global broadcasters that the Club World Cup venues would be announced by the end of September. FIFA has not announced a broadcast partner for the tournament.
Infantino confirmed the full list of venues on Saturday evening at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, New York.
“Football is the most popular sport on the planet, and in 2025 a new era for club football will kick off when FIFA stages the greatest, most inclusive and merit-based global club competition right here in the United States,” Infantino said in a FIFA press release.
Lumen Field and the Rose Bowl are the only west-coast venues selected for next summer’s tournament. Lumen Field is the 68,000-capacity home of MLS side Seattle Sounders, NWSL club Seattle Reign and NFL franchise the Seattle Seahawks. The Sounders are one of the teams competing at the 2025 competition and are expected to play at least one game at Lumen Field.
Coming to the USA in 2025 🇺🇸#TakeItToTheWorld | #FIFACWC pic.twitter.com/ocAOgy87Fl
— FIFA Club World Cup (@FIFACWC) September 28, 2024
There are only two west-coast stadiums selected for the Club World Cup in part due to the 2025 CONCACAF men’s Gold Cup — the international tournament between teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean — taking place at the same time in the U.S and Canada, one year out from the nations co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico. The 14 locations selected for the 2025 Gold Cup were announced earlier this week and include the following 2026 World Cup venues: Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, San Francisco’s Levi Stadium, Houston’s NRG Stadium and Vancouver’s BC Place.
Training bases, sponsors and broadcasters, meanwhile, are yet to be announced for the Club World Cup. In April, the New York Times reported that a global streaming deal with Apple was close but that did not come to fruition. FIFA then launched a media rights tender in July for both the 2025 and 2029 editions of the tournament in the hope it would raise interest and competition. The deadline for submissions was August 24.
In January, FIFA confirmed that it was planning to stage the first women’s Club World Cup at the start of 2026, with further editions to follow every four years. No details have yet been announced on the host nation or how clubs will qualify for the inaugural 16-team tournament.
2025 Club World Cup stadiums: Full list
- MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.)*
- Meredes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta)
- Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte)
- TQL Stadium (Cincinnati)
- Rose Bowl Stadium (Los Angeles)
- Hard Rock Stadium (Miami)
- GEODIS Park (Nashville)
- Camping World Stadium (Orlando)
- Inter&Co Stadium (Orlando)
- Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia)
- Lumen Field (Seattle)
- Audi Field (Washington, D.C.)
*denotes 2026 World Cup final venue
What to make of the crowded 2025 calendar
So it’s official. FIFA will hold its controversial Club World Cup for the first time next summer in the U.S. A number of high-profile players have recently pushed back on the tournament’s concept amid an increasingly crowded football calendar.
Manchester City midfielder Rodri suggested recently that players could strike if their schedules continue to be overcrowded with various competitions. “I think it’s the general opinion of the players,” Rodri told reporters on Sept. 17. “And if it keeps this way, there will be a moment where we have no other option.”
In the meantime, the show will go on. The majority of matches will be played on the U.S. east coast with kickoff times that will suit European audiences. The CONCACAF Gold Cup will be played simultaneously (mainly on the West Coast) with the final set for July 13.
Overlap is expected but The Athletic reported in January that CONCACAF and FIFA officials were discussing creating “smart schedules” to allow fans to enjoy both tournaments. Still, it’s difficult to predict how successful this tournament will be.
Will it captivate American audiences beyond the highly-engaged English Premier League market in the States? Will fans from around the world travel to support their clubs and positively impact overall attendance numbers? While players and pundits debate the tournament’s importance, FIFA remains bullish. — Felipe Cardenas, senior soccer writer
Which clubs will compete at the 2025 Club World Cup?
UEFA
- Chelsea (2021 Champions League winners)
- Real Madrid (2022, 2024 Champions League winners)
- Manchester City (2023 Champions League winners)
- Bayern Munich (ranking)
- Paris Saint-Germain (ranking)
- Inter Milan (ranking)
- Porto (ranking)
- Benfica (ranking)
- Borussia Dortmund (ranking)
- Juventus (ranking)
- Atletico Madrid (ranking)
- Red Bull Salzburg (ranking)
CONCACAF
- Monterrey (2021 Champions League winners)
- Seattle Sounders (2022 Champions League winners)
- Leon (2023 Champions League winners)
- Pachica (2024 Champions League winners)
AFC
- Al Hilal (2021 Champions League winners)
- Urawa Red Diamonds (2022 Champions League winners)
- Al Ain (2024 Champions League winners)
- Ulsan HD (ranking)
CAF
- Al Ahly (2021, 2023, 2024 Champions League winners)
- Wydad AC (2022 Champions League winners)
- Esperance de Tunis (ranking)
- Mamelodi Sundowns (ranking)
CONMEBOL
- Palmeiras (2021 Copa Libertadores winners)
- Flamengo (2022 Copa Libertadores winners)
- Fluminense (2023 Copa Libertadores winners)
- River Plate (ranking or 2024 Copa Libertadores winners)
- Boca Juniors (ranking)
OFC
- Auckland City (best OFC Champions League winners in four-year period)
There are three spots still left to be decided for the 2025 Club World Cup. Two clubs will come from CONCACAF, with one of those going to the winner of the 2024 Copa Libertadores. Argentinian giants River Plate are guaranteed to be one of the two teams from South America due to their high ranking but could also win the Libertadores in November. If they do, the final CONMEBOL place will go to Paraguayan side Olimpia.
The final spot will be a team from the U.S. as the hosts. FIFA has not yet announced how this place will be determined.
So, what is the FIFA Intercontinental Cup?
The proposal for an annual Intercontinental Cup was approved at a FIFA Council meeting in March.
In the first round of the tournament, on an alternating basis, the AFC Champions League winners or the CAF Champions League winners will play at home against the OFC Champions League winners. The victor of this round will go on to play either the AFC Champions League winners or the CAF Champions League winners in the next round.
Meanwhile, CONCACAF Champions Cup winners will play the Copa Libertadores winners in a single-leg game, with the host to alternate every year.
The winners of those two paths will face each other in a play-off at a neutral venue a few days before the final. The play-off winner will then face the UEFA Champions League winner at the same neutral venue.
The Intercontinental Cup will take place for the first time this year, with the play-off on December 14 and the final on December 18.
Real Madrid, European champions, will compete in the final, with Al Ain, Auckland City, Al Ahly, Pachuca and the Copa Libertadores winners all competing in earlier rounds. The location of the inaugural edition is to be determined.
What about player welfare concerns?
FIFA have said that “the expanded (Club World Cup) 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”. FIFPRO adds that the match calendar has again been enlarged without “appropriate safeguards” or “any say” from players.
The union has also called for FIFA to “facilitate discussions with all football stakeholders about the introduction of a basic set of player health and safety regulations to support the welfare”.
In March, the FIFA Council “unanimously approved the establishment of a dedicated task force on player welfare to ensure the smooth implementation of player welfare principles such as mandatory rest periods”. FIFPRO says there “has (been) no follow-up and requests by FIFPRO to launch this process have gone unanswered”. FIFA did not directly respond when asked by The Athletic about the task force.
FIFPRO, at a minimum, believes that players should have an off-season break of 28 days.
The new Club World Cup, though, is likely to end only a month before the start of the 2025-26 seasons. The last six Premier League campaigns (not including the 2020-21 COVID-impacted season) have begun on August 16 (2024), August 11 (2023), August 5 (2022), August 13 (2021), August 9 (2019) and August 10 (2018), for example, leaving little time for a break and pre-season before domestic football resumes.
The end of the 2025 Club World Cup is not dissimilar to when a European Championship, Copa America or World Cup might end, all of which also usually take place over June and July. It means, though, that prominent European players may only have one summer off in a four-year cycle, with the Club World Cup now coming in the year between a Euros and a World Cup.
In its workload research paper about men’s football, published earlier this year, FIFPRO also called for an in-season break of 14 days and says players should have at least one day off per week.
FIFPRO also wants guidelines introduced to limit the amount of successive back-to-back games, where players have two games or more per week.
To address player welfare concerns regarding the 2025 Club World Cup, FIFA says teams will have at least three days’ rest between fixtures. FIFA also points out that the International Match Calendar, which includes the 2025 reworked Club World Cup, was approved with a memorandum of understanding by the European Club Association (ECA) earlier this year.
The World Leagues Forum (WLF), the lobby group for the top national divisions, has also voiced its concerns over the expanded Club World Cup. It has written a letter to FIFA lodging in which it complains about the governing body overloading the match calendar and refusing to consider the interests of national competitions.
(Top photo: Francois Nel / Getty Images)
