Edvard Tødenes

Liverpool and Manchester United have been locked out of playing in FIFA’s new Club World Cup which will be played for the first time in the summer of 2025. The FIFA Council meeting here in Jeddah today agreed the qualifying criteria and confirmed that a maximum of two clubs can qualify from one country for the new 32-team tournament.  England’s two places will go to recent Champions League winners Chelsea and Manchester City. Until today’s confirmation of qualifying criteria, Liverpool had a chance of qualifying based on their Champions League performances over the past three seasons.  Arsenal can qualify but only if they win the Champions League this season. The two club country cap is lifted if there are more than two Champions League winners from one country over the four-year qualifying cycle. Europe will have 12 clubs in the 32-team tournament and the spaces are allocated based on performances in the Champions League over four seasons from 2020-21 up to and including this season. Champions League winners during the four-year qualifying cycle qualify automatically which means Chelsea, Real Madrid, Man City have already booked their spaces for the tournament which will played in the USA from 15 June to 13 July 2025. Depending on prize money and the size of broadcast and marketing deals, participating clubs are expected to make about £50m from the tournament which will be held every four years. The twelve European spaces are allocated according to the UEFA Champions League co-efficient. As well as Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid the following clubs have qualified because they cannot be overtaken in the co-efficient rankings: Bayern Munich PSG Inter Milan Porto Benfica As things stand, the remaining slots will go to three or four from: Borussia Dortmund Atletico Madrid RB Leipzig Barcelona Juventus Napoli Red Bull Salzburg Lazio These clubs can only qualify by winning the Champions League this season: Arsenal Copenhagen Real Sociedad PSV Eindhoven