Auckland City amateurs take a break from the day job for Club World Cup

While most of the teams at the revamped Club World Cup would have a claim to be among the best sides in their countries, Auckland City are not even the biggest club in New Zealand's most populous city.

That status belongs to Auckland FC, who played in front of crowds of almost 30,000 as they topped the regular standings in their debut campaign in Australia's A-League this year.

Australia has been in the Asian Football Confederation since 2006, however, so it falls to Auckland City to represent the Oceania confederation in the United States over the next couple of weeks.

"We're representing 99 per cent of club teams in world football who are amateurs," Adam Mitchell, centre back and real estate agent, told Fox Sports.

"We all have day jobs. We work usually nine to five. It's extremely difficult and it's tiring, but to have these rewards at the end of the tunnel is obviously a privilege for every single person involved in this in this club."

Auckland City, whose home crowds range from a few hundred to a couple of thousand, qualified by beating Papua New Guinea's Hekari United 2-0 to win the Oceania Champions League for the 13th time in 18 years in April.

Rated the 4,957th best team in the world in the Opta Power Rankings, Auckland City will play former European champions Bayern Munich (6th) and Benfica (24th) as well as Argentina's Boca Juniors (131st) at their 12th Club World Cup.

They finished fourth at the 2014 edition after beating Morocco's MA Tetouan on penalties and Algeria's ES Setif 1-0, but otherwise it has been mostly exits at the first hurdle before the big clubs get involved.

This year's Club World Cup is an altogether different beast with 32 teams, including the biggest in the game, and $1 billion in prize money.