Six giant clubs we can’t believe aren’t at the 2025 Club World Cup: Liverpool, Barcelona…
Next summer FIFA are finally launching their long-awaited, massively expanded Club World Cup – which will see the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami battle it out in a 32-team tournament with clubs from around the globe.
Billed as club football’s proper answer to the World Cup, FIFA are staking a lot on the tournament, which is due to kick off on June 15th 2025 and will take place in the United States. But there are a number of top sides that will be watching on, having failed to qualify.
Here are six giant clubs we’re surprised won’t be taking part.
Barcelona
Real Madrid were obviously always going to be there, having won two of the last three Champions League trophies.
They’ll be joined by their city rivals Atletico in the USA next summer, surprisingly enough. That’s thanks to Diego Simeone’s side performing better over the past four seasons than Barcelona.
After three of the recent Champions League winners, there are nine places granted to the best-performing sides in UEFA competitions in a four-year ranking.
In fairness, Barcelona haven’t pulled up any trees in the Champions League in recent years. But they are currently top of La Liga, won the title more recently than Atletico, and are surely among Europe’s best sides right now.
Despite their struggles, Barca do rank higher in the four-year UEFA ranking than Club World Cup sides Benfica, Juventus and Red Bull Salzburg but miss out due to the Madrid clubs superseding them.
Liverpool
In spite of their recent struggles, nobody could possibly argue that Manchester City aren’t worthy of a place in the tournament. Joining them from the Premier League are Chelsea, off the back of their 2020-21 Champions League victory.
The problem there is that three and a half years on, only Reece James and Ben Chilwell remain from their entire matchday squad from that night in Porto. They’ve also finished 11th and sixth in the last two seasons respectively, although do appear on the up again under Enzo Maresca.
Liverpool have been up there amongst the European elite since then, currently topping both the Premier League and Champions League table, but miss out due to the rule of two clubs per association.
In terms of aforementioned UEFA four-year qualification table, Arne Slot’s Reds are the highest-ranked side to miss out.
Sporting CP
Another example of a problem of using the rolling UEFA four-year ranking, both Porto and Benfica will be at the Club World Cup but Sporting – currently the best side in Portugal, leading the league with 11 wins from 12 and on course for a third league title in four years – will not.
Still, who knows what shape they’ll be in next summer following the departure of influential coach Ruben Amorim? Being absent may be a blessing.
READ NEXT: The 5 European sides that lost in the Club World Cup: Liverpool, Man Utd, Barca…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every club to have won the Club World Cup?
LA Galaxy or New York Red Bulls
This year’s MLS Cup final doesn’t take place until Saturday night, a ding-dong east vs west coast clash that sees LA Galaxy taking on New York Red Bulls. Generally speaking, the winners of that end-of-season play-off season are generally regarded as the league’s champion for any given year.
But neither will be there; instead it’ll be Inter Miami, winners of the 2024 Supporters Shield for the best regular season record.
“We all know how Miami is in love with football and how Inter Miami is supported from across Florida and beyond for your exciting brand of football,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced back in October.
“Congratulations on your wonderful 2024 Supporters’ Shield success. You have shown that in the United States, you are consistently the best club on the field of play.
“Therefore, I am proud to announce that as one of the best clubs in the world, you are deserved participants in the new FIFA Club World Cup 2025 as the host club representing the United States.”
Hmm. Call us cynics but it certainly sounds as though Infantino has found a way to guarantee Messi will be there to sell FIFA’s flagship club tournament.
Had another club won the Supporters Shield, would he have waited to see how Inter Miami fared in the MLS Cup? Almost certainly.
Al Nassr
Let us preface this by saying we’re not suggesting that Al Nassr should be there. Quite the contrary.
The only piece of silverware they’ve lifted over the past couple of seasons was the relatively minor Arab Club Champions Cup. On sporting merit, there’s no sound reasoning for them to be there.
…and yet, we’re honestly pleasantly surprised that Infantino hasn’t concocted a devious plan to shoehorn Cristiano Ronaldo in there somewhere, particularly given his apparent cosiness with Saudi Arabia.
As above, he made sure that Messi’s there.
READ: The 6 players that completed football with every major honour: Messi but no Ronaldo…
Corinthians
Many of the biggest clubs in South America will present at the Club World Cup. The two Argentinian giants, River Plate and Boca Juniors, have qualified on the basis of a CONMEBOL four-year ranking, while Brazilian sides Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense and now Botafogo – the last four winners of the Copa Libertadores – are joining them.
We can’t really argue with that, but it does leave some of the traditional powerhouses of the South American game out of the equation. Corinthians probably the biggest of the lot, but also Sao Paulo, Santos, Independiente, Penarol and Nacional to name but a few.
If you’re a Euro-centric football watcher who only becomes aware of South American club fortunes once a year at the Club World Cup, you might be surprised that 2000 and 2012 winners Corinthians haven’t reached a continental final in over a decade and have competed in the secondary Copa Sudamericana over the past couple of seasons.
Still, they’re faring better than historic giants Santos, who were relegated last year for the first time in their 111-year history. They have made it back up this year as Serie B champions, at least.