Manchester United and Liverpool left out of new 32-team Club World Cup – but Chelsea and Man City included
Liverpool and Manchester United will not be in the newly-expanded 32-team 2025 FIFA Club World Cup after the world governing body agreed rules to limit it to two per nation – which will be Manchester City and Chelsea from the Premier League.
City and Chelsea have won the Champions League in the prescribed four-year cycle, starting with the 2020-2021 season, which earns, under FIFA rules, automatic qualification.
The only chance of a third Premier League club qualifying for the new tournament in 2025 − which will subsequently be held every four years – will be Arsenal, and only if they win the current season’s Champions League.
Even the 2025 Champions League winners will not be at the Club World Cup held in the summer of that year – unless they are among those already qualified from Europe. Those eight clubs have qualified on UEFA co-efficient points they have earned in the Champions League and not from the two other UEFA competitions.
Liverpool have more co-efficient points than Chelsea but FIFA have decided that winning the Champions League outranks co-efficient points.
So far, the European clubs already qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup are City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto and Benfica.
The FIFA Council met in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia yesterday to finalise the new competition rules.
Jeddah is hosting the last edition of the current annual FIFA Club World Cup in which Manchester City will compete as the current European champions.
They play a semi-final tomorrow against Urawa Red Diamonds from Japan, the current Asian Football Confederation champions. South American champions Fluminense are in the other half of the draw.
Having seen his side held to a 2-2 draw at home by Crystal Palace on Saturday, Pep Guardiola was asked if the tournament in Saudi Arabia had come at the worst possible time for City, and he said: “No – we love to go to play the (club) World Cup.
“To go there you have to win the Champions League. I’m very pleased and excited to go there and try to win it, of course.
“The schedule is what it is, the results are what they are and you have to accept it.”
There are still four remaining European places to be won in the 2025 Club World Cup. Arsenal will get one if they go all the way and win the club’s first Champions League at the end of this season. Otherwise, the remaining four places will be from among the following: Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig, Barcelona, Juventus, Napoli, RB Salzburg and Lazio.
Those clubs currently have the most UEFA co-efficient points from the Champions League. There will be direct competition between teams from the same nation with – Salzburg apart – only one remaining spot available.
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