Al Ain fight for Club World Cup 2025 spot during ACL final against Yokohama

On Saturday night, Al Ain will attempt to land a second Asian Champions League crown.

The 2003 champions, the only UAE side to lift the continent’s premier club trophy, must overturn the 2-1 first-leg deficit against Yokohama F Marinos at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.

However, victory carries with it another reward: whoever prevails in the Garden City will seal a spot at next year's inaugural 32-team Fifa Club World Cup – and thus compete against some of the game’s most prominent clubs.

Here’s the lowdown on the expanded tournament, set for summer 2025.

For the first time, Fifa’s Club World Cup will comprise 32 teams – the past 17 editions dating back to 2007, five of which have taken place in the UAE, have featured only seven.

Designed to bring together the world’s leading teams, it aims to pit against one another the most successful clubs from each of the six international confederations: Uefa, South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Confederation of African Football (CAF), Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), and Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).

The places are distributed as follows:

Africa: 4 CAF teams (three via CAF Champions League champions pathway and one via ranking pathway)

Asia: 4 AFC teams (three via AFC Champions League champions pathway and one via ranking pathway)

Europe: 12 Uefa teams (four via Uefa Champions League champions pathway and eight via ranking pathway)

North and Central America, Caribbean: 4 Concacaf teams (all via Concacaf Champions Cup champions pathway)

Oceania: 1 OFC team (via ranking pathway)

South America: 6 Conmebol teams (four via Conmebol Libertadores champions pathway and two via ranking