Barcelona’s defeat and elimination from the Champions League on Tuesday ensured Atletico Madrid’s qualification for the new FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 in the United States, despite also falling out of the European competition, as the ‘Colchoneros’ are unreachable for the Catalan side in the rankings.
Diego Simeone’s side are the 22nd club to make it to the modern international competition, the first edition of which will run from 15th June to 13th July 2025; it will be played every four years thereafter and will be made up of 32 teams in eight groups of four, with the top two progressing to the last 16. There will be no third-place play-off.
From UEFA, which has 12 places in the competition, 11 teams have already qualified: Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester City, as champions of the three editions of the Champions League; and Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Benfica and Juventus, as well as Atletico, by ranking, pending the resolution of the 2023-24 champions, who will also go straight to the Club World Cup.
The only club of all the contenders still in with a chance of winning the Champions League, in any case, is Arsenal, whose only way of competing for the 2025 event in the United States is by winning the european competition, as they have no options via the rankings.
Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain (the protagonists of one of the semi-finals of this Champions League), Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich (whether or not they advance to the next round is yet to be determined on Wednesday) are already assured of a place in the World Cup, so if any of the five are champions, the door would be open for Salzburg to qualify.
Apart from the 11 European clubs, capped at two per country (unless more than two from the same territory have won their confederation’s continental competition, as is the case with the Brazilian teams), there are already 11 other teams from the rest of the world with a fixed place at the 2025 World Cup.
They are Palmeiras, Fluminense and Flamengo of Brazil; Al Ahly of Egypt; Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia; Wydad Athletic of Morocco; Urawa Reds of Japan; Club Leon and Monterrey of Mexico; Seattle Sounders of the USA and Auckland City of New Zealand.
In addition to one place from Europe (Arsenal, if they are European champions, or Salzburg), nine more places remain to be decided: two from Asia (with four options, between UAE’s Al Ain, South Korea’s Ulsan HD and Jeonbuk Motors and Japan’s Yokohama Marinos); two from Africa (with the chances of Tunisia’s Esperance, South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and Mazembe of Congo); one from CONCACAF (America, Pachuca, Columbus Crew or Philadelphia Union); three from CONMEBOL South America (River Plate and Boca Juniors from Argentina are currently qualified, pending the outcome of the Copa Libertadores) and one club from the host country.
