Lincoln Financial Field selected as a stadium site for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup

Before the FIFA men’s World Cup comes to town in 2026, Philadelphia will have a dress rehearsal of sorts next summer.

On Saturday, FIFA made it official that the city would host games in next year’s Club World Cup, a 32-team event that will be played in the United States for the first time. Lincoln Financial Field will be one of 12 stadiums across 11 markets.

It’s not known yet how many games will come to town. The group stage draw will be made in December, and FIFA’s announcement said more details will be released then.

Some big-name teams will be involved: Spain’s Real Madrid, England’s Manchester City and Chelsea, Italy’s Juventus and Inter Milan, Germany’s Bayern Munich, Argentina’s Boca Juniors and River Plate, and Brazil’s Flamengo. Up to 21 countries could be represented in the field, spanning all six of soccer’s continents (Antarctica has no teams).

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Just two teams will be from the United States. One will be the Seattle Sounders, which qualified by winning the 2022 Concacaf Champions League title. The other will get the “host nation” slot, and that team hasn’t been picked yet.

In theory, that team should be this year’s MLS Cup winner. But there’s a widespread belief that some way will be arranged for Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami to get the slot, since soccer’s greatest player of all time would add sizzle to the marquee. Despite the big names above, there hasn’t been much sizzle yet, in part because four of the world’s most famous clubs have not qualified: Spain’s Barcelona and England’s Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

The Union were in contention to qualify earlier this year but came up short. Winning a Concacaf title in the last few years would have been the most straightforward way, but another path nearly became easier a few months ago. Had Mexico’s Monterrey won this year’s tournament, the Union would have qualified through FIFA’s club ranking system since Monterrey won the title in 2021.

But Pachuca, the team that knocked the Union out this year, went on to win the title and break the hearts of local fans, twice.

It will be some consolation if one of those European giants comes to town, or a South American team with a big fan base. (Boca Juniors and Flamengo have huge ones.) Juventus could be particularly intriguing, between the region’s Italian-American population and the Bianconeri having U.S. national team regulars Weston McKennie and Tim Weah.

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There’s a caveat with them, though: Concacaf’s biennial Gold Cup for national teams is also set for next summer. The regional confederation and FIFA worked together to ensure there wouldn’t be much overlap of host cities, with the Gold Cup mostly in western cities and the Club World Cup mostly in eastern ones. They will only overlap once, in the Los Angeles area.

Seattle will be the other western Club World Cup city, a natural choice so the Sounders can have some home games. That should be a great spectacle, as the city has drawn big crowds for its soccer teams since the 1970s. As for the other Club World Cup sites, two will be within a reasonable drive or train of Philly: Audi Field in Washington and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. — which will host the final.

The rest are Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Nashville, and Orlando (with two venues).

Of the 12 total venues, six are NFL stadiums, two are college football stadiums, six are MLS/NWSL stadiums, and two (Atlanta and Seattle) also host American football.

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FIFA has organized a Club World Cup for men’s teams, or at least tried to, since 2000. Historically, it’s been held yearly with one team from each of the six continents plus a host club.

Now, FIFA wants to make it a quadrennial event with a much bigger field, which will be held the year before the men’s World Cup for national teams. (It also wants to continue the smaller-format annual tournament and someday launch the first women’s Club World Cup).

The reason is obvious: Soccer’s governing body wants a piece of the big cash pie made by European and South American clubs. But some of those clubs have complained about adding yet another event to the international calendar, and they aren’t alone.

The players’ union for world soccer, FIFPro, has strongly protested against the tournament, noting the wear and tear it will add on players who already play 50 to 60 games each season. The Club World Cup will run from June 15 to July 23, and the kickoff date is just two weeks after the UEFA men’s Champions League final.

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Additionally, European soccer teams’ player contracts traditionally expire on June 1, and it’s not clear whether free agents will be compelled to stay with clubs in the World Cup through the tournament. And any player from North and Central American national teams will have to decide whether to play in the Gold Cup or Club World Cup — knowing that officially, they can be forced into the Gold Cup.

A side effect of all this controversy is that TV broadcasters worldwide haven’t had much interest in buying the rights. Earlier this year, FIFA reportedly negotiated with Apple for a global deal worth around $1 billion, but talks fell apart. No major deal has been struck since, for the United States — or anywhere else.