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Europe will have 12 teams at next summer’s inaugural expanded Club World Cup –
with Arsenal still in contention to take one of the remaining places.
Variously predicted to be the greatest club tournament ever or the event that finally pushes exhausted players over the edge, prompting them to escape to the mountains and await the apocalypse, Carlos Roa style, the new FIFA Club World Cup takes place in the USA in the summer of 2025.
Rather than the recent mid-season format, featuring only seven teams in total – the champions of each continent, plus one club from the host county – the new competition will feature 32 clubs, in a summer tournament similar to the World Cup for international teams.
Asia, Africa and CONCACAF will each provide four teams, plus there will be an extra club representing hosts USA. Six clubs will come from South America, with one from Oceania. The other 12 spots will all go to European teams, and many of the qualified teams have already been decided, even though the event is still more than a year away.
Manchester City, Chelsea and Real Madrid have qualified by winning the Champions League since 2021 – this year’s winners get in automatically, too.
The other spots go to the teams with the best average Champions League performance during the same four-season period, with a two-club limit per country – sorry Liverpool, that means you’re out.
Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter, Porto and Benfica could not be caught in the rankings going into this season’s Champions League knockout phase so were guaranteed places, while Borussia Dortmund were confirmed as Germany’s second entrant after RB Leipzig lost to Real Madrid in the last 16.
Despite not being in this season’s Champions League, Juventus are also now guaranteed to be Italy’s second team, after Lazio and Napoli suffered last 16 defeats.
That leaves just two places still up for grabs for Europe – one will go to Spain’s second team, which is currently due to be Atletico Madrid, but could still be Barcelona if Xavi’s side significantly outperform their La Liga rivals in the remaining rounds of this season’s Champions League, allowing them to overtake Atleti in the rankings.
The other place, perhaps surprisingly, will go to Red Bull Salzburg, who are next in line in the rankings – although they will miss out if Arsenal win the Champions League.
In that scenario, the Gunners would qualify for the Club World Cup, with England exceptionally allowed three entrants because all three would have qualified as Champions League winners.
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