It's a shame for Barca and The Reds.

FC Barcelona and Liverpool, two of the world's top football clubs, will be absent from the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. The main reason is that neither team won the Champions League between 2021 and 2024, a crucial factor in FIFA's criteria for qualifying for the Club World Cup.

The champions of the Premier League and La Liga will be absent from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.

FIFA has changed the format of the Club World Cup, allocating 12 spots to European teams based on their performance in continental competitions. To determine which teams qualify, FIFA considers the results from the 2021–22 to 2023–24 seasons of each federation's top club competition. Federations like UEFA qualify their Champions League winners during this period, then fill the remaining spots through four-year club rankings. Meanwhile, the AFC, CAF, and CONCACAF each receive four spots for their champions, the OFC receives one spot, and the host nation guarantees at least one team participation.

Messi's Inter Miami participated as a team belonging to the host association.

Another important rule is that FIFA limits each national association to a maximum of two clubs (unless more than two clubs from the same country win their respective continental competition). This rule means that even high-ranked teams can miss out on the tournament if two teams from the same country have already qualified through continental championships. This applies to a formidable English team like Liverpool, because Chelsea and Man City have already secured their places due to winning the Champions League in the last four years.

Chelsea and Man City are included because they won the Champions League.

For the European region, FIFA allocates a maximum of 12 spots. These are awarded to the Champions League winners from 2021–22 to 2023–24, with the remaining spots allocated using UEFA's club coefficient system based on Champions League performance. Unfortunately, Barcelona has been unable to qualify due to their poor performance in European competitions in recent years. In the 2020–2021 season, they were eliminated by PSG in the Round of 16 of the Champions League and continued to be unsuccessful in the Europa League in subsequent seasons. This resulted in Barcelona dropping in the UEFA rankings, behind teams like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea, PSG, and Inter Milan. Therefore, even based on UEFA's performance ranking, Barcelona did not qualify. Liverpool, on the other hand, is ineligible due to the rule that each country can only have a maximum of two teams. Meanwhile, English football has two Champions League winners participating: Chelsea and Man City.

Real Madrid also participated in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Thus, the first tournament, featuring 32 teams and taking place in the US this summer, will be without Barcelona and Liverpool. The absence of the "Reds" and the Catalan giants is a source of regret for football fans, as these are two of the most captivating teams in world football at the moment. The pain for fans of these two teams is further intensified by the fact that Barcelona's arch-rivals, the Madrid-based teams, and Liverpool's rivals, Manchester City and Chelsea, are both participating in this prestigious event. It's truly a great pity for both Barcelona and The Reds.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/tiec-cho-barca-va-the-reds-131009.html