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Fifa Ready for Discussion on 48-Team Club World Cup
The Guardian
|June 12, 2025
Fifa will hold a consultation about expanding the Club World Cup to 48 teams in 2029 if this summer's edition is successful, after lobbying from clubs who failed to qualify for the new $1bn (£740m) tournament.
The 32-team competition kicks off in the US on Saturday and the winners will receive up to £93.2m in participation and prize money for playing seven matches. That is about £25m less than Paris Saint-Germain banked from Uefa for their 17-game Champions League-winning campaign, leading to concerns from clubs who have missed out.
Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Milan are among the big clubs with large fan-bases who have not qualified and unless Fifa lifts its cap of 12 European entrants, expansion is the only way to ensure more European competitors.
Next year's men's World Cup and the 2031 Women's World Cup will involve 48 teams for the first time, so expanding the Club World Cup would be consistent with Fifa's new tournament model. Fifa sources said that although serious discussions regarding expansion had yet to take place, talks with all stakeholders about the Club World Cup's format and structure would be held after this summer's tournament.
This story is from the June 12, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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