The FIFA Club World Cup is undergoing a significant revamp in 2025, expanding from an annual seven-team tournament to a quadrennial 32-team event. This new format aims to include more teams from across the globe and increase the competition's prestige. However, the qualification process has led to some notable absences, including Liverpool.
Liverpool, despite being a dominant force in English and European football in recent years, will not be participating in the 2025 Club World Cup. This is primarily due to FIFA's qualification criteria, which prioritize Champions League winners from the 2020-2021 to 2023-2024 seasons and also limit the number of teams from each country.
Chelsea secured their spot in the tournament by winning the 2020-21 Champions League, defeating Manchester City in the final. This victory guaranteed their participation, regardless of their subsequent performance in the competition or the Premier League. Manchester City, on the other hand, qualified by winning the 2022-23 Champions League, defeating Inter Milan in the final. As Champions League winners in the specified period, both Chelsea and Manchester City gained automatic qualification.
FIFA's decision to limit the number of teams from each nation to a maximum of two, unless more than two clubs from the same country win the confederation's premier club competition over the four-year period, is the main reason for Liverpool's exclusion. Even though Liverpool had a strong performance in the Champions League and UEFA rankings during the qualification period, they did not win the Champions League in the cycle of 2021-2024. Since Chelsea and Manchester City had already claimed England's two spots by virtue of their Champions League victories, Liverpool could not qualify through the ranking system, even though they had a higher UEFA coefficient than Chelsea.
The absence of Liverpool has been met with mixed reactions. While some fans are disappointed, Liverpool's manager, Arne Slot, suggested that the team did not need another challenge and more games, emphasizing the importance of player health and rest.
The new Club World Cup format has allocated 12 spots to European teams. Four of these spots were reserved for the Champions League winners from 2021 to 2024. The remaining eight spots were to be awarded based on a ranking system considering performance in the Champions League during the same period. However, the two-team limit per country meant that several high-ranking teams from strong leagues, such as Barcelona, Napoli and AC Milan, also missed out.
In addition to Chelsea and Manchester City, other European teams that have qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup include Real Madrid (Spain), Bayern Munich (Germany), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Inter Milan (Italy), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Porto (Portugal) and Benfica (Portugal). These teams qualified either by winning the Champions League or by accumulating enough points in the UEFA ranking over the four-year period.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will be held in the United States from June 14 to July 13, marking the first edition of the expanded tournament. The competition will feature teams from all six FIFA confederations, offering a global spectacle of club football.
