Things you may not know about the billion-dollar FIFA Club World Cup

(Dan Tri) - The FIFA Club World Cup is the most notable tournament of the summer of 2025, gathering 32 leading clubs, representing continents around the world. This tournament has a total prize value of up to 1 billion USD.

Official time and location

The FIFA Club World Cup will take place from June 15 to July 14 (Vietnam time) in the US. The opening match between host Inter Miami and Al Ahly will take place at 7am on June 15 at Hard Rock Stadium (Miami). The final match of the tournament will take place on July 14 at MetLife Stadium (New Jersey).

The FIFA Club World Cup is the most anticipated football tournament of the year (Photo: FIFA).

This is the first time the FIFA Club World Cup has been expanded to 32 teams. In previous editions, only the continental champions were eligible to participate. Now, the teams with the best results in the last 4 years (2021-2025) in each continent will participate. Basically, this tournament is similar in scale and organization to the World Cup for national teams.

List of 32 teams participating in FIFA Club World Cup

Europe includes 12 teams: Chelsea, Man City (England), Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid (Spain), Bayern Munich, Dortmund (Germany), PSG (France), Inter Milan, Juventus (Italy), Porto, Benfica (Portugal), Red Bull Salzburg (Austria).

South America has 6 spots: Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo (Brazil), River Plate, Boca Juniors (Argentina).

Asia has 4 spots: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia), Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan), Al Ain (UAE), Ulsan Hyundai (Korea).

CONCACAF has 4 spots: Pachuca, Monterrey (Mexico), Seattle Sounders, Los Angeles FC (USA).

Africa has 4 places: Al Ahly (Egypt), Wydad AC (Morocco), Esperance de Tunis (Tunisia), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa).

Oceania has 1 place, Auckland City (New Zealand).

Finally, Inter Miami will be representing the host country, the United States. In fact, FIFA’s selection of Inter Miami has been controversial because they were not the champions of last season’s MLS. Instead, they only won the most points in the points-scoring phase.

Tournament format

Like the World Cup for national teams, the FIFA Club World Cup brings together 32 teams, divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each, playing a round-robin. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the round of 16 and compete in the knockout stage.

Groups at the FIFA Club World Cup (Photo: FIFA).

The results of the table are as follows:

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: PSG, Atlético Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle Sounders.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, Esperance de Tunis, Chelsea, Los Angeles FC.

Group E: River Plate, Urawa Red Diamonds, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Dortmund, Ulsan Hyundai, Sundowns.

Group G: Man City, Wydad AC, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al-Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg

With this new format, FIFA hopes to make the FIFA Club World Cup more competitive, more commercial and more attractive to global fans. Thanks to that, this tournament (which will be played every 4 years) will gradually become an event with global influence, no less than the World Cup.

FIFA Club World Cup Prize Money

According to FIFA, the total prize money of the tournament is up to 1 billion USD. Of which, 525 million USD will be divided among all participating clubs. The remaining 475 million USD will be divided based on competition performance.

European teams received the lowest amount of $12.81 million and the highest amount of $38.19 million. Clubs in South America also received about $15.21 million. CONCACAF, Asian and African clubs received about $9.55 million, while New Zealand's Auckland City received $3.58 million.

Group stage teams will receive an additional $2 million for each win and $1 million for each draw. Round of 16 teams will receive $7.5 million, quarter-finalists will receive $13.1 million, semi-finalists will receive $21 million, and finalists will receive $30 million. The champions will receive $40 million.

According to calculations, the champion team can receive 125 million USD. This is a huge amount of money, not inferior to the top European tournaments. Therefore, the big clubs are very determined to win this tournament.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/nhung-dieu-co-the-ban-chua-biet-ve-giai-dau-ty-do-fifa-club-world-cup-20250612231658569.htm