Thanks to many years of playing in the Champions League, Salzburg has collected enough points to play in the Club World Cup in the USA in 2025. The draw takes place on Thursday – and there are dream losers among 32 clubs waiting.
Salzburg will find out its opponents on Thursday (7 p.m./CET) at the 2025 Football Club World Cup in the USA (June 15th – July 13th), which will be held for the first time with 32 teams. The Bulls are placed in the second of the four pots in the draw in Miami, which means duels with Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, FC Porto, Benfica Lisbon and Juventus Turin are excluded in the group phase.
Duels with Real Madrid or Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami await.
“/> Gianni Infantino may be sitting in the rain, but it’s also raining a lot of money at the Club World Cup. APA / AFP / Pascal Le Segretain
Pot one includes European defending champions Manchester City, Champions League winners Real led by David Alaba, Bayern Munich (Konrad Laimer) and Paris Saint-Germain as well as the Brazilian trio Flamengo, Palmeiras and Fluminense. They are joined by River Plate from Argentina. The “rest of the world” awaits in pots three and four, including Boca Juniors (ARG), the Saudi Arabian Neymar Club Al-Hilal and Inter Miami.
Thanks to the Champions League
Twelve teams from Europe are taking part in the new tournament in the old World Cup format with eight groups of four. The top two from each pool advance to the round of 16. The fact that Salzburg received one of the coveted places is thanks to its Champions League performances in recent years and the fact that the ranking allows a maximum of two teams per regional association.
The competition, which has so far been held with a maximum of eight clubs, is played in Los Angeles, New Jersey, Atlanta, Seattle, Nashville, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Washington and Miami. Orlando in Florida is represented by two stadiums. The tournament is also a test run for the World Cup, in which the best national teams will play in the USA, Canada and Mexico in 2026.
