Mundial de Clubes FIFA™ and Coupe Intercontinentale de la FIFA™ announced

In December 2023, at the FIFA Council meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, key decisions were taken in relation to a new 32-team global club competition – the first edition of which will be played in the United States in 2025. It was confirmed that the competition’s official name will be Mundial de Clubes FIFA™ and that it will feature clubs from each of the six confederations. Speaking after the meeting, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “Clubs play a fundamental role in world football, and the Mundial de Clubes FIFA will be a major milestone in providing clubs from all confederations with a fitting stage on which to shine at the highest level of the game. This will be an open competition based on sporting merit that will play a key role as part of our efforts to make football truly global.”

The first edition of the tournament will take place from 15 June to 13 July 2025. These dates were selected to ensure that the scheduling of the tournament is harmoniously aligned with the Men’s International Match Calendar to allow sufficient time between the tournament final and the start of the season in many domestic leagues globally, and considering that a minimum of three days of rest between matches should be guaranteed in order to safeguard player welfare.

The format of the competition was also confirmed and will comprise a group stage composed of eight groups of four teams per group playing in a single-game round-robin format. The top two teams per group will progress to the round of 16, with a direct single-match knockout stage from the round of 16 to the final. There will be no play-off for third place.

With the objective of ensuring the highest quality possible based on sporting criteria over the most recent four seasons, starting from the group stage of the confederation’s relevant premier club competition, and incentivising the result of every game in the respective tournament, the following methodology for the new standard ranking was approved:

In the case of European clubs, given that three full seasons and a full group stage of the fourth season of the UEFA Champions League have already been completed, and since UEFA has an existing club coefficient system, the pre-existing methodology principles for the purpose of calculating the UEFA club coefficient in relation to matches in the UEFA Champions League only will be exceptionally applied to determine the ranking of European clubs. The approved methodology for the ranking of European teams is therefore as follows:

See the latest status of Mundial de Clubes FIFA™ Confederations ranking: