The new Club World Cup which will debut in 2025 will be played on 12 courts USA with a final at MetLife Stadium, located on the outskirts of New York, announced this Saturday the president of the FIFAGianni Infantino.
MetLife Stadium is the same venue that will host the 2026 World Cup final that the United States will host with its neighbors Mexico and Canada.
During a public event in New York, Infantino revealed the 12 venues for the first edition of the Club World Cup expanded to 32 teams, which will start on June 15 and conclude on July 13 with the title clash at MetLife Stadium.
This 82,500-seat arena, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is home to the NF’s New York Jets and Giants.
Another nine of the 12 venues are also located in the eastern part of the United States: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami (Florida), Camping World Stadium and Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando (Florida), Audi Field (Washington, DC), Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (Georgia), Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte (North Carolina), Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), TQL Stadium in Cincinnati (Ohio) and GEODIS Park in Nashville (Tennessee).
The West Coast will host games at the iconic Rose Bowl in Pasadena (California), site of the 1994 World Cup final, and at Lumen Field, the home field of the Seattle Sounders, one of the qualified teams.
The Club World Cup will be held parallel to the Gold Cup, Concacaf’s main national team tournament, which will take place mainly on the American West Coast.
The Club World Cup draw will take place in December and will divide the 32 teams into eight groups of four for the first phase.
The creation of this competition has faced opposition in some sectors of the football world, considering that it contributes to even more congestion of the annual load of matches for players.
The previous version of the Club World Cup had seven participating teams and the last winner was Manchester City in December 2023.
The new expanded tournament, which FIFA plans to hold every four years, will also be a key test for the 2026 World Cup, after serious security incidents that occurred in July at the Charlotte and Miami stadiums during World Cup matches. America’s Cup.
A total of 30 of the 32 teams participating in the new Club World Cup are already confirmed. One of the remaining places will be for the winner of the Copa Libertadores and the other for a representative of the host United States.
Real Madrid, Manchester City, PSG and Bayern Munich are among the 12 European teams qualified. Among the South American teams are River and Boca and the Brazilians Flamengo, Fluminense and Palmeiras while the Concacaf will be the Mexicans Monterrey, León and Pachuca.
Source: Ambito
