Just one more day! One of the most excited tournaments in world football, the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, begins at 6 am on Sunday with a match between hosts Inter Miami and Egypt’s Al Ahly. The clubs participating in this tournament, known as the ‘battle for intercontinental supremacy’, have already completed their final preparations. The month-long event will feature some of the brightest stars in world football, but unfortunately some of players and clubs will be missing in this tournament.
Why Clubs will not participate in this tournament?
(La Liga winner) Barcelona, ​​(English Premier League champion) Liverpool, and (Serie A winner) Napoli, failed to make it onto the main stage of the World Cup. This is because of FIFA’s established qualification policy, under which continental club champions from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America are eligible to participate between 2021 and 2024.
12 teams from Europe are participating in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025
Chelsea (2021 Champions League winners), Real Madrid (2022 and 2024 winners), Manchester City (2023 winners), after these three clubs secured direct places, the remaining nine teams were selected according to the UEFA Club Rankings, which took into account European performance over the last four seasons.
As a maximum of two clubs from the same country will be eligible, Atletico Madrid from Spain and Real Madrid have been awarded places, but Barcelona have been eliminated. Similarly, Liverpool have not been awarded places from England, as Chelsea and City have been awarded places. And in the case of Napoli, they have also been eliminated due to their poor European performance over the past four years, behind Inter Milan and Juventus.
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A stage without stars: Those who will be spectators
Due to this rule, many world-famous stars will not be seen on stage like the Club World Cup. Among them are:
•Barcelona: Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski, Rafinha
•Liverpool: Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Alysis McAllister, Alisson
•Napoli: Kevin De Bruyne (who won the Champions League with Manchester City but is now a Napoli player)
Cristiano Ronaldo is under special scrutiny. Some clubs in Brazil and Argentina wanted him to play in the Club World Cup, but no deal was finalized. Similarly, Brazilian star Neymar will not be seen in this tournament.
While champion clubs and their best players selected from around the world are ready to grace the stage, the absence of some famous clubs and stars has somewhat dampened the excitement of the Club World Cup.Yet the Club World Cup is still going to be one of the most exciting tournaments of the year in terms of importance, competition and global excitement.
Source: Prothom Alo
