Club World Cup pots determined

With the Club World Cup draw on Thursday, the Seattle Sounders got a slightly better idea of what their group might look like when FIFA announced the event’s structure on Tuesday.

The 32 participating teams have been split into four pots. Each group will consist of one team from each pot.

As one of the two teams from the host nation, the Sounders were automatically assigned Group B. Inter Miami was assigned Group A and will play in the tournament opener at Hard Rock Stadium. The Sounders will play all their group stage games at Lumen Field.

Both the Sounders and Miami were placed in Pot 4, along with the teams with the lowest FIFA rankings from Asia, Africa and Concacaf as well as the only representative from Oceania. Those eight teams can not play one another.

Pot 1 consists of the four top-ranked teams from UEFA and the top four from CONMEBOL based on each federation’s ranking system; Pot 2 is the other eight teams from UEFA; and Pot 3 is the top ranked teams from Asia, Africa and Concacaf along with the two remaining teams from South America.

FIFA also revealed some of the constraints to the draw, which will mostly be familiar from the World Cup. Chief among those constraints is no group can feature two teams from the same federation with the exception of UEFA, which will have two teams in four of the eight groups.

Given those constraints, here are two potential groups in which the Sounders could be drawn:

A particularly difficult group might feature Real Madrid (world ranking: 4, according to FootballDatabase.com), Inter Milan (2) and Botafogo (23); while an “easier” group might feature Fluminense (103), Salzburg (113) and Wydad (262). The Sounders are ranked 459.

FIFA Club World Cup 2025 pot allocation

Pot 1: Manchester City (ENG), Real Madrid C.F. (ESP), FC Bayern München (GER), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), CR Flamengo (BRA), SE Palmeiras (BRA), CA River Plate (ARG), Fluminense FC (BRA)

Pot 2: Chelsea FC (ENG), Borussia Dortmund (GER), FC Internazionale Milano (ITA), FC Porto (POR), Atlético de Madrid (ESP), SL Benfica (POR), Juventus FC (ITA), FC Salzburg (AUT)

Pot 3: Al Hilal (KSA), Ulsan HD (KOR), Al Ahly FC (EGY), Wydad AC (MAR), CF Monterrey (MEX), Club León (MEX), CA Boca Juniors (ARG), Botafogo (BRA)

Pot 4: Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN), Al Ain FC (UAE), Espérance Sportive de Tunisie (TUN), Mamelodi Sundowns FC (RSA), CF Pachuca (MEX), Seattle Sounders FC (USA), Auckland City FC (NZL), Inter Miami CF (USA)