The 2025 Club World Cup is a first-of-its-kind tournament that, in FIFA’s dreams, is precisely what its name suggests. It’s a 32-team extravaganza modeled after soccer’s actual World Cup, with one key difference: top professional clubs, such as Real Madrid — rather than national teams, such as Spain — are the contestants.
It is scheduled to begin June 15, 2025, in the United States. And when it does, to FIFA, it will be “innovative, inclusive, groundbreaking and truly global.” It represents a novel concept in sports, where the vast majority of pro teams compete exclusively within national or continental borders; the Club World Cup, on the other hand, will feature multinational pro teams — soccer’s equivalent of the New York Knicks or Kansas City Chiefs — from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.