This Tuesday,
FIFA
released more details about the organization of the next 2026 Soccer World Cup, with 48 teams, which will take place in North America.
But he also revealed more details about the
32-team Club World Cup
, the great novelty that is coming to the football planet, which will have its first edition
in June 2025
, with venue to be confirmed.
In one of the last meetings of the entity chaired by
Gianni Infantino
, it was learned how many places each confederation will have, with
UEFA
being the most benefited, with 12 teams from Europe participating in the contest, double that of
Conmebol
, which will have only 6 teams.
Asia, Africa and Concacaf will have 4, each one of them.
While Oceania and the host country will have a place, respectively.
There will be a raffle, groups, final phases, a super champion who will take the glory, as in the World Cups, and prizes in dollars for all the participants, with figures that have not yet been revealed but will be in the millions.
The big question that was raised until today was to know how these teams from each confederation would be chosen, and it was FIFA who was in charge of establishing the classification rules for the event
, which already has some teams with a guaranteed presence.
The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, host of the congress that takes place in Rwanda.
Photo: REUTERS/Jean Bizimana.
Through the communication that was released from Rwanda, the venue of the congress in which different Argentine soccer leaders participated, such as
Claudio Tapia
,
Víctor Blanco
and
David Garzón
, the mother house of world soccer stressed the importance of sporting merit to the classification time.
That is why the 32 teams that will play this "super" Club World Cup will access it according to a series of parameters, based on the course of time that began in 2021 and will end in 2024.
In confederations with more than 4 places, this is UEFA and Conmebol, the last four champions of the most important continental tournament in the region (
Champions League
or
Libertadores
, respectively) will qualify.
The remaining teams will do so through a ranking or coefficient of each confederation.
In the event that a champion is repeated, there will be one more place for those who enter through that table of merit.
In Europe,
Chelsea
and
Real Madrid
, the last two champions, would already be inside.
They would be joined by the winner of the Champions League this year and the next.
The rest?
It will be time to take out the calculator and start doing the math with the
"UEFA coefficient":
Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool, PSG, Manchester United and Barcelona (in addition to Real Madrid and Chelsea) are at the top of that table where participations are computed and achievements in the last continental competitions.
Real Madrid, champion of the 2022 Champions League and the recent Club World Cup, in February.
Photo: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez.
Here, when talking about UEFA, it will be necessary to put a big asterisk: it is that outside of the four classified for being champions, the ranking will have
a quota of two clubs per country
.
For example, if Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United are not Champions League champions but enter by ranking, only two of them will.
Club World Cup 2025: what happens with Conmebol and the Argentines
And what happens on this side of the world?
In the case of South America,
Palmeiras
(champion in 2021) and
Flamengo
(in 2022) would already have their ticket secured.
The 2023 champion (which will be known after the final on November 4) and next year's would complete that combo of "champions".
The other two would enter the "Conmebol ranking", a list made up of historical values and current performance, which becomes relevant at the start of each Libertadores to define the privileges at the time of the draws and the assembly of groups.
According to the December 2022 table, the last one published,
River Plate
ranks first, followed by Palmeiras and Flamengo (who would already be classified).
Boca Juniors
, in fourth place, would also agree.
Gremio
from Porto Alegre,
Nacional
from Montevideo,
Atlético Paranaense
,
Peñarol
from Uruguay, along with
San Pablo
and
Santos
, both from Brazil, appear from fifth to tenth place.
The rest of the Argentines are somewhat far from the vanguard positions:
Independiente
de Avellaneda (did not qualify for any cup this year) appears in 13th place,
Vélez Sarsfield
(semifinalist in 2022) is 20th, while
Racing Club
and
Estudiantes de La Silver
rank 22nd and 23rd, respectively.
The Conmebol 2023 ranking, published in December.
Another asterisk?
FIFA also warns that it will be each confederation that makes the dispute criteria official, although it insists on the importance of the sporting criteria.
That is why we will have to wait for official confirmation from Conmebol to start looking at that table and each of its parameters with different eyes from now until December 2024.
Regarding the rest of the world, those classified for the Club World Cup in Africa, Asia and Conmebol, the account is simple: the last four champions of their respective continental tournaments will do so.
Finally, in Oceania and in the host country there will be their own criteria to define the chosen teams.
look also
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