Although the FIFA Club World Cup has been around for over 20 years, it's not a club tournament that many punters will be familiar with. That is simply because the format has seemingly been ever-changing, with different names being put on the tournament as well. For the 2025 edition, however, few will have missed the details given that it now features 32 clubs.
Indeed, the tournament has been making a lot of noise in the media, both for good and bad reasons. While some see it as an opportunity for clubs from different continents to square off, others simply view it as an unnecessarily increased workload for the players. In total, 6 confederations participate and as said, there are 32 clubs.
The clubs are drawn into eight groups (A-H), where they face each other once, and the top two clubs of each group advance to the knockout stage. From there on, it's what you would expect with the round of 16, quarter-finals, etc. All of this is completed in a month's time and the host country for the 2025 edition is the United States.
The 2025 edition of the Club World Cup will be streamed completely for free on DAZN worldwide. FIFA reached an agreement with the streaming platform at the end of 2024, announcing the free-to-view model. For those in the UK, it will also be possible to watch 23 of the 63 games on Channel 5 for free: 15 group games, four last-16 ties, two quarter-finals, one semi-final and the final.
21st edition beckons: While most view the Club World Cup as a completely new competition, and rightfully so given the format overhaul, it has actually been around since 2000. This summer's action, in fact, will be the 21st edition of the competition.
From 7 to 32: As stated above, a total of 32 clubs will participate in the 2025 edition, which is a significant difference compared to last time out. Indeed, in 2023, the tournament was played in Saudi Arabia and featured a mere 7 clubs. The plans to expand the tournament started back in 2016, so they are not new, but radical nonetheless.
Kick-off times: Since the games are played in the United States for the 2025 edition, there will inevitably be some less-than-ideal kick-off times for UK fans. The 'worst' kick-off time will be 2 am in the UK, which is when the games start at 6 pm on the west coast or 9 pm on the east coast. The earlier kick-off time, meanwhile, will be 8 pm in the UK.
Below, we have collected the betting sites that generally have the lowest betting margins, which ultimately means you get more bang for your buck.