2025 FIFA Club World Cup

The Sandbox Sports
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Alright, this is a year away.
In case you cannot have an intelligent conversation about soccer:
Club World Cup is about inviting the “best” Club teams from around the world and having a tournament that looks very similar to the World Cup (but not the 2026 version): Eight Groups of Four Teams, Round Robin within the Groups, top two teams advance to knockouts (single-elimination brackets similar to March Madness).
This version will differ from past Club World Cups as:
a) it’s happening in the Summer instead of late December; and
b) more teams (used to be just seven or so).
c) it’s happening right here in the US of A.

Fun fact: CONCACAF Gold Cup (Country teams, not club teams) will be held around the same time. No idea which CONCACAF players will have to choose… MEX nationals, as they have several teams. Weston McKennie, assuming he’s still with JUV. Alphonso Davies, who currently plays for Bayern.
So, only three slots left, one of which is a team from the host.

No stadia have been chosen, but seems that 2025 Gold Cup (no stadia announced wither) will be held on the West Coast, while the CWC will be held farther east.

Guessing the stadia that require major one-time overhauls (ATT, SoFi) will either not be picked or FIFA will allow smaller pitches for this. This is considered a “dress rehearsal” for FIFA 2026.

Oh, and through all of this, MLS is likely to be played. So far, only the Sounders are in, and that means two weeks of matches have to be arranged to be held at other times. MLS already knows this, so maybe SEA start a week early (assuming they do not qualify for 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup) or something.

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Or, maybe McKinnie won’t have to choose:

Unless Miami is chosen as the US Host’s pick.

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I’ve always wondered what that would sound like

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Hard to hear it when you are all hands over your ears and “LALALALALA AMERICAN-RULES FOOTBALL IS GREAT BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD ME SO, AND I CANNOT THINK FOR MYSELF!!!”
We can discuss this more, after this 8-second play is over and for the next 35 seconds before the next one, assuming no team or TV timeouts, or three minutes and 35 seconds after if there are.

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Or, we can discuss it while the kids kick a ball around for the next 90 minutes, since we won’t be missing anything. If you want to have an intelligent conversation about it, that is.

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As much as I enjoy watching soccer I sometimes think there are too many competitions.

I would go to a match involving Bayern to see Kane and Davies play. Not sure there are many other teams of great personal interest in this competition I would fly to the USA to watch.

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Bump.
Yeah, this will happen at the same time as the CONCACAF Gold Cup, so maybe CAN will play in Seattle?
It’s been decided, preliminarily, that Gold Cup will be on the West Coast and CWC will be on the East Coast (or maybe into the Central Time Zone). I assume the CWC matches will be Noon or near that time, while Gold Cup will be at night, so no conflict. Gold Cup needs to be placed in Olympic years, like the Euros and Copa America, like a real Confederation (IMO).

The sites have still not been determined. This is often a test-run for the WC, but one of venues, AT&T, has to build a new field several feet above the current one and they probably don’t want to do that twice, is probably out as contender. MB Stadium might not want to do what they have to do for WC (months of growing inside the stadium) just for the CWC, unless they have ATL (and the MLS team) play on grass for the 2025 season.
Probably need to bring in some pot growers, see how to grow grass indoors (SWIDT?).
Meanwhile, a lot of MLS teams play at the same time as these two events, so those stadiums might not be available for a grass makeover.
SoFI is tearing out the concrete-based corner seating areas, replacing them with removeable ones which would be removed for WC soccer. Problem is that it lowers the capacity to under FIFA’s WC Final minimum.

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Bump:
Seems that SEA will be included in the Club World Cup, so Lumen Field will be a stadium.

The tournament will take place from June 15 to July 13 next year across eight stadiums in the United States. Sources previously told ESPN that the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, stood among the venues selected to host games.

Inter&Co Stadium (Orlando, Florida), Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta), Hard Rock Stadium (Miami), Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia), Red Bull Arena (Harrison, New Jersey), MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, New Jersey) and Lumen Field (Seattle) are also set to be announced on Saturday, sources told ESPN.

With only eight stadia, it is likely that Groups will play all their matches at the same stadium? Or will they be in pairs so that the last Pool matches are simultaneous?

This narrows down the stadia available for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, unless one of the Artificial Turf ones wants to do double duty.
Wait, Gold Cup sites announced:

14 sites for 16 teams. Huh.

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May take in a CONCACAF match in Vancouver but I would not leave town to watch a match.

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OK, so only five stadia need a grass layover. Two are MetLife, Camping World in ORL.
The other three stadia are used by MLS Soccer teams: SEA, ATL, CAR. That will be interesting.

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Oh yeah, that Transfer Window and contracts ending June 30. Why didn’t we think about that??

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Is this thing going to actually be played? I hope they have back-up teams in case some of the invitees drop.

A little clarification here:

A recent analysis published by Opta shows that, while City played the most games last season (59), the majority of teams in Europe played fewer than 50 matches, with five Premier League sides playing 42 games last season – just four more than the league season.

The min # matches that an EPL team could play is 40: 38 EPL, one EFL Cup and one FA Cup. That they lost their (average) second match in those tournaments doesn’t mean much. They sometimes play another EPL team, so one’s out, one plays on.
And, the top teams in those tourneys often don’t play their top players.

EDIT: And just today (10/15/2024):

Not sure if a word of this is true, but:

“FIFA president, you know that you have not sold the audiovisual rights for the budget you said for that Club World Cup,” Tebas said, while speaking at the Forum of the European Union of Clubs in Brussels. "You know that you do not have the sponsorships for that Club World Cup as you had budgeted.

“You know that the leagues and the players’ football unions we don’t want that Club World Cup. Withdraw that Club World Cup now.”

Tebas believes FIFA will have to use its own funds to launch the 24-team Club World Cup next year.

He said: “If you are going to use FIFA funds to finance the money that is missing from the promise you have made to the clubs, you are taking it away from all those federations or places that FIFA says it is there to help. We are talking about more of €1.5 billion that will have to be drawn from that fund.”

That would be shitty if FIFA lost money on this. Sure, FIFA losing money would be a great thing except that they give a shit-ton of money to federations all over the world, and that would be the first spigot to be closed.

according to wiki:

On July 15, 2024, media rights tender for FIFA’s new top club competition open for the Americas, Asia, and Middle East & North Africa for 2025 editions.[29] FIFA published an “invitation to tender in the Americas, Asia, and Middle East & North Africa” weeks after talks with tech giant Apple over an exclusive $1 billion global rights deal for the tournament, which was said to be a quarter of FIFA’s broadcasting target value for the tournament reportedly stalled.[30][31][32] On September 19, 2024, FIFA called an emergency meeting to discuss broadcasting rights as a deal was still not reached.[33]

Yeah, no TV rights deal reached so far.

So, Spain FA, withdraw your Madrid teams. A lot less racism at this tourney will be the result. If they do, expect others to follow suit.

Bummer, as I could easily go to The Rose Bowl for a match.

Prize Money, from onefootball:

While it might seem like another major commitment for the players after what will be another hectic season, the financial incentive for participating in the Club World Cup is certainly inarguable.

The total prize money is around €2.5bn and an initial €2bn will be distributed among the 32 teams that book their plane tickets to the USA. Qualification therefore brings €50m as a minimum, while there will be other results-based bonuses and the winner will receive around €100m.

Lastly, it’s only the 12 UEFA teams that seem to be upset over the increased number of competitive matches (note: they would be on friendly tours). The other, smaller teams get 50M Euros, so bring it on! That’s ten years of salary for them (disclaimer: no math was harmed in that estimate). 50M Euros buys the big teams one more player on transfer.

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They are going to make their money off of those fake digital cards they are hawking to everyone.

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Inter Miami the CONCACAF “wild-card” chosen by FIFA, because of course.

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FIFA now says:
“Bring your A-Team or else.”
“Oh, sorry about crossing the contract expiration date. You’ll figure it out.”
“Oh, and bring that A-Team four days before the start of this tournament, yeah, right after that international window.”
Then, afterward, they can say, “See, everybody brought their A-Team, so it was successful, let’s have this every TWO years!”

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The drama never ends:

Not sure this particular Costa Rican team would get the spot that one of the Mexican clubs would give up.

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Besides OFC countries, a country/league can only send at most 2 teams but can send up to 4 if they win the continental titles. The other confederation spots would then be decided by confederation club rankings. It seems Alajuelense would be the highest ranked team outside MLS and Mexico.

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OK, I think this is still going on, with FIFA forcing A-teams to play (we’ll see how many phantom injuries arise), and all that.
The draw! Cue up the dancers! U2!, etc.!
Ooh, what will happen now??
OK my prediction: all the Euro teams advance. That’s 12. The other four? Eh, who cares.

InterMiami probably advance, even though this reporter thinks the MLS Cup playoff tournament is some trend.

Although there are some serious question marks over the superstars that infamously dropped out in the early stages of the latest MLS playoffs, Miami will be the side to beat from North America.

They’re in Group A with Portos, an SA team and an Egyptian team. We’ll see, I guess. Six months away, anything can happen.

This guy, who knows where he’s playing in June:

Obed Vargas, Seattle Sounders: Speaking of options who could go abroad, Seattle’s 19-year-old midfielder Vargas has recently highlighted that he’s ready to step outside the comforts of MLS. Depending on how things go, the Alaskan-born Mexican international might move to Europe before the tournament even begins. – Cesar Hernandez

Anyway, I think the best strategy for Euro teams in the Champions League Championship (5/31/2025, only affects two teams) will give a lot of their players a rest in August. And I hope their National Teams won’t force some of them to play in the June International Window.

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ATL hosts the following games:
June 16, 3pm: Chelsea vs Club León
June 19, 3pm: Inter Miami vs Porto
June 22, 9pm: Manchester City vs Al Ain
June 29, 12pm: Round of 16
July 1, 9pm: Round of 16
July 5, 12pm: Quarterfinal

I will try to get tickets for 1 or 2.

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Looks like DAZN may have reached a deal for about $1 billion. DAZN dominates soccer streaming here in Canada but I do not subscribe to it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/business/fifa-dazn-club-world-cup.html?unlocked_article_code=1.f04.h1oH.LSlhz7oqT13c&smid=url-share