Before the draw, this Thursday (7 p.m. French time), for the group stage of the 2025 Club World Cup organized in the United States next summer (June 15-July 13), Fifa revealed the four hats distributing the 32 qualifiers. It went a little unnoticed, but Kylian Mbappé cannot find PSG in the groups. Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern and Paris as well as Flamengo, Palmeiras, River Plate and Fluminense are among the top seeds. Liverpool have obtained better results than PSG over the last four years but the Reds are not there (there are no more than two clubs per country).
Cityzens, Merengues, Munichois and Rouge et Bleu are particularly advantaged, because they cannot fall on the four best European teams in hat 2, namely Chelsea, Dortmund, Inter and FC Porto. Fifa has in fact invented “half hats”! Man City, Bayern and PSG will face either Atlético, Benfica, Juventus or Salzburg. Real, for its part, will not be able to find itself in the same group as the Colchoneros for a Madrid derby. No group will have two clubs from the same country.
Mbappé’s Real privileged
In short, already assured of not drawing Inter, Chelsea and Atlético in hat 2, Real of Jude Bellingham, Vinicius and Kylian Mbappé could well inherit the easiest draw on Friday (live from Miami ). Benfica is 14th in the UEFA club rankings, Juventus 22nd and Salzburg 45th! Finally, if Manchester City, Real, Bayern and PSG finish at the top of their respective groups, they will not be able to compete before the final four of the competition organized in the country of Donald Trump…
In hats 3 and 4, some teams left to make up the numbers. The South Koreans of Ulsan, the Tunisians of Esperance of Tunis, the Argentinians of Boca Juniors and the South Africans of Mamelodi Sundowns have not won their respective Champions League in recent years (the Copa Libertadores in South America). South). Auckland City, the Oceania champions, will be the weakest team on the field, while Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami will struggle to exist, even playing their first match at home.
