Club World Cup draw LIVE: Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid discover group stage opponents
Fifa’s expanded competition will run across the summer of 2025 and has drawn much criticism
Manchester City will play Juventus in the group stages of next year’s expanded Fifa Club World Cup, while Chelsea will face Flamengo.
Also in City’s group are Moroccan side Wydad AC and Al Ain FC from the United Arab Emirates. Chelsea will also play Mexico’s Club Leon and Tunisia’s Esperance Sportive de Tunis.
Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are in Group A and will face Al Ahly in the opening match of the expanded 32-team tournament before games against Porto and Palmeiras.
The expanded Fifa Club World Cup will take place next summer in cities across the United States and with no fewer than 32 teams taking part across almost a month of action - something several players have already spoken out against in an increasingly congested line of work.
The inaugural group stage draw was held in Miami and was excruciatingly long in duration - well over 90 minutes. It featured appearances from Donald Trump and Ronaldo Nazario, who unveiled a new Club World Cup trophy alongside Fifa president Gianni Infantino
The Club World Cup will feature eight groups of four, with the top two going into the round of 16. You can find out all the groups, below.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
We’ve been at it an hour and we’ve managed 16 teams out of the hat. Thankfully this intense schedule takes a break for some more video tributes as DJ Khaled, Will Ferrell, Hugh Jackman and a bunch of others who won’t be playing this summer get a few seconds in the sun. To be honest if they stay at this much longer, De Bruyne, Messi and Modric might not be playing either because they’ll have retired by the time we wrap things up.
At least Teo has absolutely loved his evening and we’ve seen the palm of his right hand eight times.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Juventus are drawn and Del Piero gives a knowing nod, as though he is simultaneously surprised by their presence in the draw and utterly sure they’ll do well in it.
They’re into Group G with Man City.
That leaves RB Salzburg (or FC Salzburg for those organisations who only acknowledge the existence of their own sponsors), who will be in Group H with Real Madrid.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Atletico Madrid, Group B with PSG.
Benfica, Group C with Bayern Munich.
Inter Milan into Group E with River Plate.
Borussia Dortmund into Group F with Fluminense.
Here’s Gloria Estefan drawing Real Madrid out of a hat, bet you thought you’d never see it in this lifetime.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Cubilas gets us underway with Pot 2 and first out is Porto. We go to the other stage - the Maxi Rodriguez, Wenger etc stage - and he draws the group for them. A2, so in with Palmeiras. Groups getting done in a whole other area.
Cubilas is very excited by his role, swirling balls around and then showing us an open hand bereft of balls before dipping back in to pick up his selection.
Chelsea are out next and Wenger puts them in Group D with Flamengo.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
River Plate into Group E, Fluminense into Group F.
Manchester City are the first Premier League side out and they’re into Group G.
Flamengo go Group D, Real Madrid into Group C, which leaves Bayern Munich heading into Group C as the last of the pot 1 teams.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Ivanka Trump is now on stage. This is a lot of people across two stages. The first ball is picked out and we’re underway with the draw which I’m going to be honest with you, has been a ridiculous shambles until now.
ANYWAY.
Palmeiras are out and into Group A.
PSG are out next and they are in Group B. That’s how we proceed.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Ok on stage we’ve now also got Leotta Diletta, Teofilo Cubillas and a couple of others on stage...and then we cut to another stage entirely elsewhere which looks like they are doing the actual draw. Odd. Arsene Wenger, Youri Djorkaeff, Maxi Rodriguez and others are there to do that side.
Also, Del Piero welcomed people on stage with the comment of “another wave of immigrants,” which ...could be interpreted in several ways.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Right, Alessandro del Piero is on stage. “Here’s how it will work,” he says, and a video starts.
We’re getting rules now, Americanized explanations but still rules for the draw, so presumably after half an hour we’re getting to why we’re here.
Pots are detailed, including who can and can’t be drawn together - if you missed it earlier, we’ve explained it below.
No clubs from same nation in each group and so on.
Pot 1 teams go into groups A-H first, then constraints over seedings, Uefa-Conmebol pairings and so on.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Here, get as excited as Gianni over the Golden Reveal.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Oh, there’s more. The trophy comes with a key. Infantino puts the key in the trophy and...it sort of opens up and spins into two pieces. Splendid craftsmanship no doubt.
Do we even need the football? Let’s just have a month’s worth of talking and back-patting and name-dropping and showing off amounts of money, that would be just magnificent.
Infantino is genuinely excellent at each of those after all.
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