FIFA confirm pots for CWC draw with Chelsea, City & RM to feature in tournament

FIFA has confirmed the seedings for the 2025 Club World Cup draw, which will take place on Thursday afternoon.

The 2025 Club World Cup will be contested by 32 clubs from the six continental confederations and will be the first edition in this format to take place in the United States.

Chelsea and Manchester City will be the two English clubs taking part in the tournament as a result of winning the Champions League in 2021 and 2023 respectively.

Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG will also be involved in the tournament, which runs from June 15 to July 13 next year.

Clubs from other continents that have qualified include Boca Juniors, River Plate and Al-Hilal.

Ahead of Thursday's draw, it has now been confirmed which pots the teams will be competing in and there could be some interesting matches coming up.

Unsurprisingly, Pot 1 features the best teams in the competition, including Man City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate and Fluminense.

City are reigning champions of the competition after beating Brazil's Fluminense 4-0 in the final last year.

Meanwhile, Chelsea find themselves in Pot 2 alongside Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Juventus and Salzburg.

The Blues managed to qualify for the competition, being – along with City and Madrid – one of the last three teams to win the Champions League.

While they may have struggled in the years that followed their European success, they appear to have finally found stability under new boss Enzo Maresca.

Meanwhile, Pot 3 and Pot 4 consist of a number of teams from around the world, including Neymar's Al-Hilal and Lionel Messi's Inter Miami.

According to reports, FIFA is about to make a major rule change for the Club World Cup.

As reported by Sky Sports, clubs will have to bring their strongest sides to the tournament and field their strongest teams.

Despite the grueling schedule players face, FIFA will not allow stars to miss the tournament even if it takes place in the off-season.

FIFA will allow the member associations of all participating teams to open their transfer window from June 1 to 10, 2025, allowing new signings to be registered before the tournament starts on June 15.

Clubs are also allowed to replace players between June 27 and July 3, within a certain limit.