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
Aha, some relevance. A new trophy is being unveiled! Gianni Infantino left the stage about 30 seconds ago, now he comes back on stage with Ronaldo - the real one - to unveil the trophy.
A dark cover is lifted off and the new Club World Cup trophy is displayed - it’s pretty big, very round and looks to be engraved with different areas of the world and a lot of other stuff.
“This is completely new trophy and I’ve asked why they didn’t do this one before! It’ll be amazing, 32 teams to be the best, big money for the clubs and this beautiful trophy. For the captains to lift it will be tough!” Ronaldo says.
“It’s a unique, iconic trophy,” Infantino says. “Different languages, the history is written there, the moon positions of the first matches and names of all clubs and confederations - everything is engraved for entenity.”
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Now the promo video, the intro with teams and goals and all that jazz, with a dramatic voice overlay telling us what to expect. New rivalries will be forged, places in history will be claimed. A star studded cast battling for eternal glory. So on and so forth.
Honestly, we’ll be there soon with the actual draw. Presumably.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Oh my word. Infantino introduces a special video which starts with...Donald Trump.
“I know him as ‘Johnny’, he’s a winner and a president, I’m a president, soccer is going through the roof as everyone knows. Barron is a very big fan and a very good player,” the incoming US chief tells us.
“I was very responsible in getting [the World Cup],” he adds.
Back on stage, Infantino thanks Ivanka Trump and family for being in place.
Perhaps we’ll get to the football shortly.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
“Something was missing,” Infantino says. “Something to show us who the best club in the world is.”
Isn’t that what the InterContinental Cup was for and all the smaller versions of this competition? Apparently not.
“Now we have it,” he assures us.
Infantino thanks DAZN - the broadcasters for the competition - for their “historic” agreement. The matches will all be screened live and free to air.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
We have indeed started...with a music video highlighting Miami and Fifa. “Football unites the world” appears to be one of the big messages, along with Fifa knows how to party. Great stuff, really top.
Emilio Estefan, a Cuban-American producer who was involved with the video, is on stage to explain...well, why it happened.
Samantha Johnson is our host and she’s getting us properly underway now, inviting Gianni Infantino on stage to talk about “the Miami vibe”. “Football or soccer, call it as you want,” he invites us. Magical.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
A quick reminder of the clubs, their pots and all the badges you never knew you needed to know.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Fifa assure us their programme for the draw will start at 18.00 which is great, but also not so great, as that has already come and gone without sign of a start.
Perhaps a sign of things to come in a tournament which is trying to force itself to be bigger than many hold it as.
In Europe, we should probably limit that too - South American sides and fans have long enjoyed participation and victory in this competition in all its guises, from the InterContinental Cup and the previous Club World Cup iteration and through to now.
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
We are just about there for go-time and the draw lies ahead of us. Will Fifa break with the usual trend and forgo video montages, self-congratulatory speeches and terrible one-liners that nobody thinks are funny?
They might, but we shouldn’t expect they will.
It is a football draw, after all.
New Club World Cup explained: Format, teams and why it’s controversial
The first edition of Fifa’s new Club World Cup format will take place at the end of this season from 15 June until 13 July.
Football’s governing body has sought to ramp up interest in a competition that is currently considered little more than a footnote on the European campaign, with the Champions League winners often facing a trip across the globe against vastly undermatched opposition.
The last 11 iterations have been won by Europe’s representatives, with Brazilian club Corinthians interrupting the monopoly by beating Chelsea in 2012. Fifa is aiming to reignite interest, expanding the seven-team tournament into a controversial 32-team spectacle that will significantly impact competing clubs’ time for recovery.
Here’s everything you need to know.
New Club World Cup explained: Format, teams and why it’s controversial
Fifa Club World Cup draw - live
Fifa finally announced a first sponsor for its revamped Club World Cup a month ago in a deal that will brand video review checks at the tournament in the United States next year.
Chinese consumer electronics firm Hisense will have “branding appearing in the video operation room and on pitchside screens,” Fifa said in a statement, when match officials study key incidents in the 32-team tournament being played in 11 American cities from June 15 to July 13.
Though no previous Fifa tournament has had a sponsor for video reviews since the technology was approved before the men’s 2018 World Cup in Russia, Hisense was the official “VAR Screen Provider” for this year’s European Championship organised by Uefa in Germany.
Fifa did not specify the value of the deal sealed with Infantino at a signing ceremony in Shanghai.
Reviews of referee decisions in key incidents — for goals, penalty awards and red cards — can extend to at least two minutes, despite Fifa’s aim during trials in 2016 of completing checks in about 10 seconds.
Hisense first signed up as a Fifa sponsor for the 2018 World Cup and it renewed for the 2022 edition in Qatar.
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