Coming to Philadelphia and the rest of the United States this summer is a rebranded and overhauled FIFA competition. Set as a precursor to the 2026 World Cup, this competition will bring all of soccer’s greatest stars and teams to this side of the Atlantic for one epic tournament. The Club World Cup will be hosted in North America for the first time in the tournament’s history, and there will be eight matches hosted at Lincoln Financial Field.

Competition History

The Club World Cup was established by FIFA in the year 2000 and it has been held annually between 2005 and 2023. It typically consisted of seven teams— one from each continent and another from the host nation. To qualify for the tournament, a team needed to be winners of their most recent continental trophy. For example, Philadelphia Union would need to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup in order to qualify for the competition. 

As one may expect, this competition has been dominated by European clubs throughout its history. In the 20 editions of the tournament, the European club entrant has lifted silverware 16 times. No club outside of Europe or Brazil has ever won the tournament, making the old format seem uncompetitive and predictable. The last non-European team to win the Club World Cup was Brazilian side Corinthians in 2012.

American teams have had very minimal participation in the Club World Cup, as there has only been one team to ever play in the tournament: the Seattle Sounders. Their lone appearance in the competition ended in a 1-0 defeat in their first match. The Seattle Sounders will once again represent CONCACAF in this year’s edition, as will the ever annoying Inter Miami; Miami’s qualification to the tournament is questionable at best, blatantly corrupt at worst. They gained qualification through winning the Supporters’ Shield last season, even though host nations typically award a spot in the competition through winning the league— MLS Cup.

Changes in 2025

FIFA’s club competition has changed its format in order to gain viewership, prominence, prestige, and of course to make FIFA more money (because why not). The Club World Cup will now occur every four years, just as the World Cup does. In an effort to improve the tournament, FIFA has changed it to a 32-team competition. This change is the largest change and quite an important one. While the tournament is still expected to be dominated by European competition, the expansion should lead to more viewership as the competitiveness increases substantially. The Club World Cup will take on the old World Cup format, with eight groups of four and a playoffs that goes from 16 teams to the final two.

As with the previous version of the Club World Cup, all teams winning their respective continental competition qualify for the tournament. Four winners from each continental competition entered the tournament from UEFA, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, AFCON, and the AFC, while the Oceania Football Confederation only has one entrant. In addition, South America and Europe earned two and eight additional spots, respectively. These spots are awarded to teams with the highest respective rankings in UEFA or CONMEBOL. The last spot went to Inter Miami. If a tournament has less than four separate winners over the four previous years, then the additional spot is given to the team with the highest ranking in their federation.

Coming to Philadelphia

Philadelphia will play host to eight matches and at least the same number of teams. Some of the games to put on the calendar are Manchester City’s match with Wydad AC (June 18th) and current European Champions Real Madrid’s game against Brenden Aaronson’s former club RB Salzburg (June 26). The biggest game that Philadelphia will host is a quarterfinal match on July 4th— what a way to celebrate the 249th birthday of the United States. There will also be a round of 16 match on June 28th.

Each Club World Cup match will take place in Lincoln Financial Field. The stadium has a history of hosting soccer matches, including the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final, the 2023 Summer Series, and the 2016 Copa America Centenario. Next summer the South Philadelphia stadium will host matches in the 2026 World Cup.

Viewing information and Philadelphia Schedule

To watch the Club World Cup this Summer, TNT and DAZN have split the viewing rights. Games will start on Saturday, June 14th and finish a month later on Sunday, July 13th. Below are all of the matches that will be played in Philadelphia:

Group Stage:

June 16 (Mon) Flamengo (Brasil) vs Esperance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia)

June 18 (Wed) Manchester City (England) vs Wydad AC (Morocco)

June 20 (Fri) Flamengo (Brasil) vs Chelsea FC (England)

June 22 (Sun) Juventus FC (Italy) vs Wydad AC (Morocco)

June 24 (Tue) Esperance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia) vs Chelsea FC (England)

June 26 (Thu) FC Salzburg (Austria) vs Real Madrid (Spain)

Playoffs

June 28 (Sat) Round of 16 Winners of Group A vs Second Place in Group B

July 4  (Fri) Quarterfinals Winners of R16 Game Above vs R16 Match Between Winners of Group C vs Second Place of Group D

Tickets are already for sale on Ticketmaster. There is also an opportunity to volunteer for the tournament with FIFA here.