The 2025 Club World Cup will take shape Thursday shortly after 1 p.m. in Miami, where FIFA will conduct the draw for the tournament’s group stage. Real Madrid, Inter Miami and the rest of the 32-team field will learn their opponents — and their paths to a novel trophy.
This inaugural Club World Cup has been riddled with uncertainty. But with a broadcaster recently secured and 12 U.S. stadiums on board, the draw will be a pivotal landmark on the rocky route to kickoff.
The opener is slated for June 15 in Miami, and the final for July 13 in New Jersey. Beyond those dates and locations, not much else about the tournament is known. But it will come to life as FIFA draws the 32 clubs from four seeded pots into eight groups — and, soon thereafter, releases a full schedule.
Yahoo Sports will have live coverage of the draw and its aftermath below.
How to watch the Club World Cup draw
The event and the show begin at 1 p.m. ET. You can watch the draw live and for free on FIFA.com, FIFA+, DAZN and YouTube.
How the draw works
Much like a classic World Cup draw, the 32 teams have been placed in into four pots — in part based on meritocratic rankings, in part based on geography.
Pot 1: Manchester City (Europe), Real Madrid (Europe), Bayern Munich (Europe), PSG (Europe), Flamengo (South America), Palmeiras (South America), River Plate (South America), Fluminense (South America)
Pot 2: Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto, Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus, RB Salzburg (all Europe)
Pot 3: Al Hilal (Asia), Ulsan (Asia), Al Ahly (Africa), Wydad (Africa), Monterrey (CONCACAF), León (CONCACAF), Boca Juniors (South America), Botafogo (South America)
Pot 4: Urawa Reds (Asia), Al Ain (Asia), Espérance (Africa), Mamelodi Sundowns (Africa), Pachuca (CONCACAF), Seattle Sounders (CONCACAF), Auckland City (Oceania), Inter Miami (CONCACAF)
The draw begins with Pot 1. The first team picked goes into Group A, Position 1; the next team picked probably goes into Group B, Position 1; and so on. After all eight groups are filled with a Pot 1 team, a similar procedure empties Pot 2, then Pot 3, and finally Pot 4 — but subject to certain “constraints,” as explained here.
Follow along below starting at 12 p.m. ET as the orbs are drawn, and the groups are unveiled. We’ll unpack the complexities as they become relevant.
Live21 updates
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Seattle Sounders get a much tougher draw than Miami…
They’ll play PSG and Atlético Madrid in Group B. That’s tough.
Seattle would need to pull off a pretty significant upset to advance.
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Inter Miami will play Palmeiras and Porto
They’re three of the four teams in Group A.
And FIFA is probably disappointed with that. There’ll be no Messi-vs.-European giant in the group stage.
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The Pot 1 draw…
No real takeaways yet, but for those keeping track…
Group A: Palmeiras
Group B: PSG
Group C: Bayern Munich
Group D: Flamengo
Group E: River Plate
Group F: Fluminense
Group G: Manchester City
Group H: Real Madrid
To be clear, this does not mean that Man City and Real Madrid will meet in the first knockout round. It’s all very confusing.
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Seattle Sounders learn an opponent…
They’ll be in Group B. And PSG was just drawn into Group B as the top seed, the first European team out of Pot 1.
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Ivanka Trump draws the first team…
… and it’s Palmeiras.
That means they’ll go into Group A, and play Inter Miami in the group stage.
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About to get underway…
… at around 1:35 p.m. ET, for those keeping track.
Pot 1 will be up first.
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Explaining the “draw constraints”
They just explained the procedure on the broadcast. It’s complicated. Here are the key points:
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Man City and Real Madrid, as the top two teams, must go to groups whose winners will stay on opposite sides of the knockout bracket. (One side is Group A, C, E and G; the other is B, D, F and H.) Bayern Munich and PSG, as seeds Nos. 3 and 4, will also be sent to opposite sides. And they’ll be placed to ensure that none of the four European superpowers could meet before the semifinals if they all win their groups. (The same exact principles apply to Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 from South America.)
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The top four teams from Pot 2 — Chelsea, Dortmund, Inter and Porto — must be placed in groups with a South American team from Pot 1. The rest of Pot 2 — Atléti, Benfica, Juve and Salzburg — will be paired with a fellow European club from Pot 1.
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Teams from the same country can’t be in the same group — meaning Atlético Madrid can’t draw Real Madrid.
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Beyond the four pairings of European teams, no two clubs from the same continent can be grouped together.
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Inter Miami will get Position 4 in Group A, and Seattle will get Position 4 in Group B, so that they can play the opening games of the tournament (against teams from Pot 3).
As we explained earlier, it’s helpful to think about the first two pots as Pots 1A, 1B, 2B and 2A:
Pot 1A (Europe top seeds): Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG
Pot 1B (South America top seeds): Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense
Pot 2A (Europe bottom seeds): Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus, RB Salzburg
Pot 2B (Europe middle seeds): Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto
The Pot 1A teams must be paired with the Pot 2A teams; the Pot 1B teams must be paired with the Pot 2B teams.
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It’s 1:25 p.m. ET…
… and Gianni Infantino is still onstage.
No sign of pots or the orbs that will be used to draw teams into groups.
But they did just call up former Italian forward Alessandro Del Piero, who will apparently be the “draw conductor.”
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FIFA president Infantino and “Fenômeno” reveal the prize
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Donald Trump appears…
… via video. That was random — and, of course, political.
Trump and Infantino are tight. In the pre-recorded video message, he called Infantino only by his first name, “Gianni.”
Expect Trump to be very present around the 2026 World Cup, and perhaps at the 2025 Club World Cup as well.
He isn’t in Miami today for the draw, but Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are. Infantino gave them a shoutout.
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Don’t expect the actual draw to start anytime soon…
These events are insufferably long and often cringey.
This one was slated to start at 1 p.m. ET. It started at 1:04 with a long musical video interlude. Now Gianni Infantino, the self-important FIFA president, is talking.
Highly doubt we’ll get any teams drawn before 1:30 p.m. ET.
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The draw appears to be delayed…
It’s 1:04 p.m. ET. Neither DAZN’s stream nor the FIFA+ stream has started.
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Strongest possible group
The strongest possible group, on the other hand, could be constructed in a few different ways. But it would definitely include two European teams — namely, Atlético Madrid or Juventus matched up with Man City, Real Madrid or Bayern.
That would allow for a South American team from Pot 3 — Boca Juniors and, more notably, Botafogo, the current Brazilian Serie A leaders and recent Copa Libertadores champions. (Al Hilal is the other strong Pot 3 option.)
Inter Miami could then join them from Pot 4, in a group that looks like this:
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Real Madrid
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Juventus
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Botafogo
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Inter Miami
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Weakest possible group
Given the “constraints” explained below, the weakest possible group is probably:
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Fluminense
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Porto
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Wydad
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Auckland City
By all estimations, Auckland City is the weakest team in the field by a very wide margin.
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How the draw procedure will balance the groups
Following up on our previous post … it’s helpful to think about Pots 1 and 2 as Pots 1A, 1B, 2B and 2A:
Pot 1A (Europe top seeds): Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG
Pot 1B (South America top seeds): Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense
Pot 2A (Europe bottom seeds): Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus, RB Salzburg
Pot 2B (Europe middle seeds): Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto
The Pot 1 teams will be drawn into the eight groups. Then it’s Pot 2’s turn. But the 2B teams will have to match up with 1B teams, and the 2A teams with 1A teams.
Why? Because, although the four South American clubs are top seeds, the eight best teams are all European.
This stipulation ensures that we don’t get one group with Real Madrid and Chelsea, another with Man City and Inter Milan, and another with Fluminense and Salzburg. Each group will have at least one European giant OR a very good European team and a very good South American team.
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How will the draw work?
Much like a classic World Cup draw, the 32 teams have been placed in into four pots (see above).
The draw begins with Pot 1, the top seeds. The first team picked goes into Group A, Position 1; the next team picked probably goes into Group B, Position 1; and so on. After all eight groups are filled with a Pot 1 team, a similar procedure empties Pot 2, then Pot 3, and finally Pot 4 — but subject to the following “constraints”:
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Man City and Real Madrid, as the top two teams, must go to groups whose winners will stay on opposite sides of the knockout bracket. (One side is Group A, C, E and G; the other is B, D, F and H.) Bayern Munich and PSG, as seeds Nos. 3 and 4, will also be sent to opposite sides. And they’ll be placed to ensure that none of the four European superpowers could meet before the semifinals if they all win their groups. (The same exact principles apply to Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 from South America.)
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The top four teams from Pot 2 — Chelsea, Dortmund, Inter and Porto — must be placed in groups with a South American team from Pot 1. The rest of Pot 2 — Atléti, Benfica, Juve and Salzburg — will be paired with a fellow European club from Pot 1.
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Teams from the same country can’t be in the same group — meaning Atlético Madrid can’t draw Real Madrid.
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Beyond the four pairings of European teams, no two clubs from the same continent can be grouped together.
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Inter Miami will get Position 4 in Group A, and Seattle will get Position 4 in Group B, so that they can play the opening games of the tournament (against teams from Pot 3).
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How teams qualified for the Club World Cup
You might be wondering: Where are Liverpool, the English Premier League leader? And Barcelona, the Spanish league leader? And Napoli, the Italian Serie A leader? And Club América, the reigning champs of Mexico’s Liga MX?
The answer: They didn’t qualify, because you don’t get into the Club World Cup on recent form.
With one notable exception, teams qualified based on their performance in continental competitions over the previous four years (2021-2024). Any club who won the UEFA Champions League, or the Copa Libertadores, or the Asian, African and CONCACAF equivalents, earned a berth. The rest were awarded using a results-based ranking system.
But there was one caveat: only the top two clubs from any given country could qualify via rankings. So, even though Liverpool ranked eighth in Europe, the Reds missed out because Man City and Chelsea won the Champions League in 2023 and 2021. Barcelona, meanwhile, ranked two spots behind Atlético Madrid — because Barca underperformed in the Champions League over the last four seasons.
That’s how we got the 32-team field that will be sorted into groups today.
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Power ranking the Club World Cup field
With soccer’s money and stars concentrated in Europe, the Club World Cup’s field is a bit more stratified than the original World Cup’s.
Here’s how I’d break it down into tiers:
TIER 1: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City
TIER 2: Inter Milan, Chelsea, PSG
TIER 3: Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, Juventus, Benfica, Porto
TIER 4: Palmeiras, Al Hilal, Botafogo, RB Salzburg, Flamengo
TIER 5: River Plate, Fluminense, Al Ahly, Inter Miami, Boca Juniors, Monterrey
TIER 6: Seattle Sounders, Pachuca, Mamelodi Sundowns, Ulsan, Espérance, León, Urawa Reds, Wydad, Al Ain
TIER 7: Auckland City
