Club World Cup draw: Inter Miami vs Al Ahly opens tournament, Man City to face Juventus

Inter Miami will kick off the 2025 Club World Cup against Al Ahly while Manchester City will meet Juventus after being drawn together in the same group for FIFA’s new competition.

Lionel Messi’s MLS Supporters’ Shield winners will play host for the tournament opener against Egypt’s champions at Hard Rock Stadium, Miami on June 15, 2025.

Real Madrid will come up against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, who currently have several European stars in their squad, including former Barcelona forward Neymar.

Chelsea were drawn with Flamengo, Esperance de Tunis and Leon while Bayern Munich will face Benfica, Boca Juniors and Auckland City.

The new 32-team competition will be held in the U.S. in June and July 2025, with the majority of games taking place on the east coast while the Gold Cup takes place primarily on the west coast. Both competitions come ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Many of the world’s top teams will be absent because of the qualification regulations and limit of two sides per country, while the inclusion of Messi’s Miami has caused controversy.

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Qualification is based on either a ranking by performances over a four-year period or by winning continental titles between 2021 and 2024.

In previous Club World Cups, the hosts would get a spot for their national champions. Though Miami won the Supporters’ Shield for topping the regular-season table, they lost in the MLS Cup playoffs, the winners of which are considered the champions of the U.S. FIFA’s decision to award the U.S. spot to Miami came after they had won the Supporters’ Shield but before their playoff elimination by Atlanta United.

The draw was held in Miami where FIFA president Gianni Infantino also presented the new trophy, which has his name engraved on it. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump also spoke about looking forward to the tournament.

Infantino presents the new trophy alongside former Brazil forward Ronaldo (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

The final will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 13. Having initially struggled to sell broadcast rights to the event, FIFA announced this week that all 63 matches will be shown for free on DAZN.

Club World Cup groups in full

Group A: Palmeiras, FC Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle Sounders

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica

Group D: Flamengo, Esperance de Tunis, Chelsea, Club Leon

Group E: River Plate, Urawa Red Diamonds, Monterrey, Inter

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan HD, Mamelodi Sundowns

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad AC, Al Ain, Juventus

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Red Bull Salzburg

What is the Club World Cup format?

Previous Club World Cups featured only seven teams, the winner of six continental competitions plus the host nation’s league champions.

This new format mirrors the World Cup, with 32 teams split into eight groups. The four teams in each group play each other before the top two in each group go through to one-tie knockout rounds, from a round of 16, through quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

The old format will remain under a different name, the Intercontinental Cup, which will take place for the first time this year in Qatar, with the play-off on December 14 and the final on December 18.

Which cities will host Club World Cup matches?

There are 12 venues being used across 11 cities:

• MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.)
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta)
• Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte)
• TQL Stadium (Cincinnati)
• Rose Bowl Stadium (Los Angeles)
• Hard Rock Stadium (Miami)
• GEODIS Park (Nashville)
• Camping World Stadium (Orlando)
• Inter&Co Stadium (Orlando)
• Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia)
• Lumen Field (Seattle)
• Audi Field (Washington, D.C.)

Reaction to the draw…

Chelsea

Chelsea will be optimistic about progressing through the group stage. Facing Flamengo will provide their toughest test as they came third in Brazil’s Serie A table this year, but Chelsea avoided the two clubs who finished above them in Botafogo and Palmeiras.

It will also reunite them with former defenders Filipe Luis (2014-15) and David Luiz (2011-14, 2016-19), who won several trophies between them at Stamford Bridge. Luis is the head coach, while Luiz — Champions League winner with Chelsea in 2012 — is still playing at the age of 37.

Chelsea’s opening game will be against Mexican side Club Leon, who have won their league on eight occasions although the last time was a decade ago. ES Tunis are one of Africa’s most successful clubs, winner of 33 league titles, 15 Tunisian Cups and four CAF Champions League crowns.

This is a competition Chelsea have always taken seriously and seen as one they want to win. The timing of it even played a role in the decision to part ways with Mauricio Pochettino and hire Enzo Maresca in June because the club did not want any uncertainty over the head coach role going into this tournament.

It is also one of the reasons Chelsea have built a sizeable squad with a minimum of two players for every position so that they are in condition to compete.

Simon Johnson

Inter Miami

There was legitimate concern that host side Inter Miami would be placed in a difficult group. That hasn’t occurred. Miami avoided Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter, among other top European teams. Palmerias and Porto, though, are much better teams than the MLS Supporters’ Shield champions.

Messi and his close friend, and now head coach, Javier Mascherano, will open the tournament against African champions Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium on June 15. That’s as favorable a match up as they could’ve hoped for, although the Egyptian side are hardly a pushover. Still, Miami, who has yet to reload in the winter transfer window, will be under intense pressure to not crash out. They were awarded the host spot despite not being the MLS champion. The Supporters’ Shield was enough for FIFA to invite Miami, and their growing brand presence in world football, to the tournament. Messi and his teammates scored 79 goals in 2024, but they were often outpaced by faster, younger MLS teams. The Club World Cup will be Miami’s ultimate stress test. It could still go terribly wrong.

Felipe Cardenas

Real Madrid

This is not just any season for Real Madrid, who since last summer have been aiming to become the first club in history to win seven titles in one season. Despite Carlo Ancelotti’s complaints that the new tournament worsens their calendar, the club has supported FIFA’s proposal and sees it as a great opportunity.

In the group stage, they will face two familiar opponents: FC Salzburg, whom they drew in the Champions League this season, and Al Hilal, whom they beat in the final of the 2023 Club World Cup. The other team, Atletico Pachuca are more unknown, but Madrid should have no problems getting through to the next phase. It also remains to be seen whether they then meet Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the last 16.

Guillermo Rai

Manchester City

It remains to be seen just how seriously City will take this tournament. Guardiola has already hit back at regulations suggesting clubs will be pressured into bringing their so-called strongest players, while Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri have raised concerns over player welfare, with the potential for another seven games to be added to the calendar in the summer of 2025.

Their draw is diverse, although we don’t have to wait long to see how City fare against Group G opponents Juventus in the UEFA Champions League. Thiago Motta’s side have lost just once in 19 competitive games this season, keeping 11 clean sheets, and will provide a stern test across both games.

City open their campaign against Wydad of Casablanca, the most successful and well-supported team in Morocco. Coach Rhulani Mokwena is just 37, and garnered a reputation as a tactical innovator at South African side Mamelodi Sundowns with a positionally fluid, high-possession approach.

Al-Ain complete the group, record winners of the United Arab Emirates Pro League, the country of which City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, is vice-president. They are managed by Leandro Jardim, whose Monaco side knocked Guardiola’s City out of the Champions League in dramatic fashion back in February 2017.

Thom Harris

Seattle Sounders

Unfortunately, the 2022 CONCACAF champions have been given one of the toughest draws imaginable.

That was always a near-inevitability as a Pot 4 team. Still, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid are both among the world’s top 20 or so clubs, while Botafogo currently top Serie A after a major away win on Wednesday at Internacional. They’ll look to threaten the Brazilian side and hope for ample rotation from the European heavyweights, but their stay in this tournament could be brief.

Jeff Rueter

Boca Juniors

Boca Juniors are globally famous blue and yellow kit was once donned by Diego Maradona. They’ve won six Copa Libertadores titles (but haven’t won since 2007) and three Intercontinental Cup, a now-defunct tournament that pitted the South American champions against their European counterparts. Who can forget Juan Roman Riquelme’s masterclass against Real Madrid in 2000?

Today, however, Boca are struggling. Their last domestic title came in 2022 and they’ve since cycled through head coaches and failed to position themselves among South America’s elite clubs. Their Club World Cup group offers a unique opportunity to recover some semblance of notoriety on the global stage. Finishing second to Bayern Munich isn’t an impossible feat.

Felipe Cardenas

Liga MX

Of the three Mexican clubs involved, Monterrey will likely enter with the most optimism. They are in one of the draw’s more balanced groups, although Inter are a clear favorite.

On paper, Leon’s draw looks difficult with some caveats. We have no clue what Chelsea will look like in six months’ time, between their twitchy fingers with players and coaches alike and the potential for ample rotation in a tournament like this. Tack on the always-capable Flamengo and Tunisian giant ES Tunis (among Africa’s greatest clubs), and they will be up against it for all 270 minutes.

Pachuca have plenty to take care of in Liga MX before bothering about their group draw, but a group with Real Madrid, RB Salzburg and Al Hilal provides a varied enough lot of opponents to imagine an upset.

Jeff Rueter

(Top photo: GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images)