FIFA Club World Cup 2025: How the draw works, pot allocations, potential matches

The FIFA Club World Cup will bring the planet's best sides together in the United States next summer, and all the action will be streamed live on DAZN.

But before the 32 clubs land on American soil, the draw must be made for the largest edition of FIFA's premier club competition.

Here's all the information you need ahead of the draw, including the 32 clubs involved, how the draw works and how you can watch it.

Which clubs are in the FIFA Club World Cup draw?

The 32 clubs involved are some of the biggest in the football world. They include Real Madrid, River Plate, Flamengo, Juventus, Boca Juniors,  Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain.

Qualification for the tournament was based on either winning a continental title - IE: UEFA Champions League or CONMEBOL Libertadores - in one of the four most-recent seasons or by having a high ranking of performance in the top-level continental tournament over the four-year period.

So, for a country like England, who were given two slots, Manchester City and Chelsea will represented them, rather than say Liverpool, because the former two clubs have won the Champions League more recently.

• Pot 1: Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense
• Pot 2: Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Juventus, Salzburg
• Pot 3: Al Hilal, Ulsan, Al Ahly, Wydad, Monterrey, Club Leon, Boca Juniors, Botafogo
• Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds, Al Ain, Esperance Sportive de Tunisie, Mamelodi Sundowns, Pachuca, Seattle Sounders, Auckland City, Inter Miami

How to watch the FIFA Club World Cup draw

The FIFA Club World Cup draw will take place at 6pm GMT; 1pm ET; 12pm CT on Thursday, December 5. It will be broadcast live and for free on DAZN worldwide.

To watch on DAZN, simply enter your email address to setup a free account and that is it. Sign up here.

Or, if you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the draw is part of your current membership.

DAZN News will also be running a live blog of the draw to keep you fully up-to-date with proceedings.

Where is the FIFA Club World Cup draw being held?

The FIFA Club World Cup draw will be conducted as a live studio event in Miami, site of the opening match of the competition.

(Getty Images)

How does the draw work? Pots and key rules

The pots

Pot 1 is made up of the highest-ranked teams from Europe and South America. Pot 2 is the rest of Europe.

Pot 3 is the best of Asia, Africa, Concacaf and the rest of South America

Pot 4 is all remaining clubs.

The rules of the draw

• No group can feature more than one team from the same confederation except for UEFA, which has 12 teams across the eight groups
• Teams from the same country cannot be drawn together, which only affects Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid
• Inter Miami CF take position four in Group A and will play the opening game
• Seattle Sounders take position four in Group B to ensure they play at their home ground

There is also a seeding structure in place, which means UEFA's top seeds Real Madrid and Manchester City will be in opposite halves of the draw, as will CONMEBOL's Flamengo and Palmeiras. It means these teams will not potentially meet until the semi-finals, if they all win their respective groups.

The same principle of being in opposite halves of the draw applies to Pot 1 seeds 3 and 4 for each confederation, which are Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain; and River Plate & Fluminense.

 In Pot 1 the UEFA teams will be placed into groups so that, if they finish first in the group, they cannot play each other before the semi-finals. The same applies to the four South American teams.

To achieve the necessary draw build for Pot teams, pathways have been created.

• Pathway 1: Winners of Groups A, C, E and G play the runners-up of Groups B, D, F and H.
• Pathway 2: Winners of Groups B, D, F and H play the runners-up of Groups A, C, E and G.

In Pot 2 Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale and FC Porto will be drawn into a group with one of Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate, Fluminense.

Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus and RB Salzburg will be drawn into a group with one of Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain.

How the draw will run

Finally we can actually get to the draw. It will start by drawing all of the teams from team pot 1, then pots 2, 3 and 4. Groups will be filled in order, subject to draw rules.

For Groups A and B, the other teams take the same position as their pot (as Inter Miami and Seattle are in position 4).

For Groups C to H, the position in the group will be drawn. This influences the order of the fixtures.

(Getty Images)

Where is the FIFA Club World Cup being staged? Host venues and cities

The summer 2025 tournament will be hosted by the United States as a warm up to the country's co-hosting 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico.

There will be 12 different stadiums used for the club competition.

The first match will be held in Miami on Sunday, June 15, at the Hard Rock Stadium, and will see home club Inter Miami play.

New Jersey's MetLife Stadium will host the final on July 13.