Club World Cup: The Insights and Preview.

The draw for the 2025 Club World Cup took place on December 5, 2024.

Defending champions Manchester City have been grouped with Juventus, while Chelsea have been drawn in the same group as Flamengo.

The top two teams in each group qualify for the knockout stage.

The last-16 stage – the first single knockout round – then moves to the quarter-final, semi-final, and then final. There is no third-place play-off between the two losing semi-final teams.

Group A: 

Palmeiras (Brz)

Porto (Por),

Al Ahly (Egy),

Inter Miami (USA)

Group B: 

Paris Saint-Germain (Fra),

Atletico Madrid (Esp)

Botafogo (Brz),

Seattle Sounders (USA)

Group C: 

Bayern Munich (Ger),

Benfica (Por),

Boca Juniors (Arg),

Auckland City (Nzl)

Group D: 

Flamengo (Brz),

Chelsea (Eng),

Esperance Sportive de Tunis (Tun),

Los Angeles FC (USA)

Group E: 

River Plate (Arg),

Inter Milan (Ita),

CF Monterrey (Mex),

Urawa Red Diamonds (Jpn)

Group F: 

Fluminense (Brz),

Borussia Dortmund (Ger)

Ulsan HD (Kor)

Mamelodi Sundowns (Rsa)

Group G: 

Man City (Eng),

Juventus (Ita),

Wydad AC (Mor),

Al Ain (UAE)

Group H: 

Real Madrid (Esp),

FC Salzburg (Aut),

Al Hilal (Rsa),

CF Pachuca (Mex)

The winners of the Club World Cup will receive up to £97m ($125m) from FIFA.

Prize money of £774m ($1bn) is to be shared between the 32 clubs – with a £406m ($525m) participation fee shared based on sporting and commercial criteria, and £368m ($475m) shared based on sporting performance.

FIFA is not keeping any revenue and it expects to share another £200m ($250m) with clubs across the world as solidarity payments.

Referees wearing body cameras and an upgraded offside detection system will be among the headline innovations at the Club World Cup in the United States, FIFA has revealed. For the first time at a FIFA tournament, match officials will wear body cameras, with selected footage broadcast live to audiences. A new, advanced version of semi-automated offside technology – combining Artificial Intelligence, multiple cameras and ball sensors – will be deployed to speed up decision-making while maintaining VAR oversight for marginal calls.

“However, for challenging offside scenarios, the video assistant referee will still validate the information provided by the system before the decision is taken,” FIFA said in a statement.

The tournament will serve as a major testing ground for both systems, the governing body said.