Reimagining the 2025 Club World Cup: A Stronger Field Based on Current Strength and Global Relevance

As the global soccer landscape continues to evolve, the focus shifts from the traditional European leagues to the Club World Cup, a tournament that promises to showcase the "32 best club teams in the world," according to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, the current qualification system for the Club World Cup has its flaws, as it does not include certain giants from around the world. The berths in the novel tournament were earned over a span of four years either by winning continental titles or performing well in those competitions from 2021-2024. While the criteria were objective and clear, they did not deliver the "32 best teams." For instance, the reigning champions of England, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States were not present. To address this issue, we decided to reimagine the field and redraft it based on present-day strength. We followed FIFA’s rules as closely as possible, keeping the same regional allocation that gives the tournament a global flavor. We navigated the two-clubs-per-country cap with only a few exceptions and came up with an ideal field that includes some of the best teams in the world.

1. Liverpool (in place of Manchester City) – The 2024-25 Premier League champs are a no-brainer pick, and the highest-ranked European team to fall short of qualification due to two other English clubs, Chelsea and Man City, winning the Champions League in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
2. Arsenal (in place of Chelsea) – The EPL runners-up had one critical injury-induced hole at striker this past season. They could fill it during FIFA’s special pre-Club World Cup transfer window, perhaps with RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Šeško.
3. Barcelona (in place of Atlético Madrid) – The most entertaining team in soccer and arguably the best until a dramatic Champions League semifinal defeat to Inter Milan. If Lamine Yamal and Co. were involved, they’d be among the Club World Cup’s headliners.
4. Real Madrid – Los Blancos fell short of every single expectation in Kylian Mbappé’s first season; now with Carlo Ancelotti off to Brazil, they have a new manager but are still the second-best team in Spain.
5. PSG – What a team! What a performance in Saturday’s Champions League final. Mentally, it will be difficult to re-gear up for another (lesser) tournament on another continent two weeks later…but if anybody can do it, it’s Luis Enrique and PSG who’ll come to America atop global soccer.
6. Inter Milan – Drubbed by PSG but unquestionably still a top-two team in Italy.
7. Napoli (in place of Juventus) – Two Serie A titles in three seasons, the latest one willed over the line by Manchester United reject Scott McTominay.
8. Bayern Munich – Back on top of Germany after a one-year aberration, Bayern is clearly one of the 10 best teams in the world even if its 2024-25 squad was unremarkable compared to the club’s lofty modern standards.