The Club World Cup is just over two weeks away. This international club tournament will be held for the first time this season and will feature 32 teams from the six continental confederations. It will take place in the United States, kicking off on June 14 and ending on July 13, 2025. FC Barcelona will not be participating in this summer tournament, as the team is already on vacation, except for its international players.
This is how the Club World Cup will work
The FIFA Club World Cup will feature 32 teams selected from the four seasons ending in 2021 and 2024. The format will consist of a group stage with eight divisions of four teams each, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the round of 16. The format will be similar to that of a World Cup: the top two teams in each group will advance to the round of 16, and from there the knockout stage will begin.
The round of 16 of the 2025 Club World Cup will be played between June 28 and July 2, the quarterfinals on July 4 and 5, and the semifinals on July 8 and 9. The grand final is scheduled for Sunday, July 13.
Qualification for the World Cup
Participation in the Club World Cup was determined by a scoring system imposed by FIFA that evaluated performance over the last four seasons, starting with the group stage of the confederation’s most important club competition, and incentivizing the result of each match in the corresponding tournament. In addition, a limit of two clubs per country was applied to the list of qualifiers, with the exception of countries where more than two clubs had won the confederation’s main club competition during the four-year period.
Barça out of the World Cup: the reasons
There are three clear reasons why Barça is not in the Club World Cup. The first is that it has not won the Champions League recently, between 2021 and 2024. Another reason for its absence also has to do with the European competition and its coefficient, which has not been high enough. Between those years, the Barça team’s performance was not good enough, as it did not reach the final stages. Finally, FIFA established as one of the rules of the tournament that the number of teams per country would be limited to two, and in the case of Spain, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, which did meet the requirements, will participate.
More champions left out
Liverpool, Barcelona, and Napoli have won three of the major European leagues, yet they are out of the Club World Cup, which does not take this season into account when determining the lineup. Although from now on, recent champions will be rewarded, for this edition, the period between 2021 and 2024 was considered. In the case of Barcelona, it did not win any UEFA titles between 2021 and 2024 and finished behind its compatriots in the rankings.