Seattle Sounders FC are going to North Africa.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confirmed details for the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup, announcing Friday that the global competition will maintain its seven-team format and be held Feb. 1-11, 2023 in Morocco. Matchups and schedule specifics are to be announced.
The tournament will start nearly a month before Seattle play any league games, as the 2023 Major League Soccer season begins Feb. 25 – with matches available on the new MLS Season Pass on Apple TV platform.
Seattle will tackle that challenge head-on, though, qualifying last May by becoming the first MLS team to win the Concacaf Champions League’s modern edition. That 5-2 aggregate victory over Liga MX’s Pumas UNAM made them MLS’s first-ever FIFA Club World Cup participant.
Who has qualified?
The exact seven-team field is already known.
Club | Confederation | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
Real Madrid (Spain) | UEFA (Europe) | 2021-22 UEFA Champions League winner |
Flamengo (Brazil) | Conmebol (South America) | 2022 Copa Libertadores winner |
Seattle Sounders FC (USA) | Concacaf (North America, Central America and Caribbean) | 2022 Concacaf Champions League winner |
Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia)% | AFC (Asia) | Nominated by AFC |
Wydad Casablanca (Morocco)^ | CAF (Africa) | 2021-22 CAF Champions League winner & host nation |
Al Ahly (Egypt)^ | CAF (Africa) | 2021-22 CAF Champions League runner-up |
Auckland City (New Zealand) | OFC (Oceania) | 2022 OFC Champions League winner |
How does it work?
Historically, the FIFA Club World Cup includes seven teams – six that qualify via each continent’s Champions League format, plus the host nation.
It has followed a straightforward knockout round format, and different clubs enter at different stages. Under this format, Seattle would play one or three games depending on how the results go.
- First round: OFC Champions League winner vs. host nation’s league champion
- Second round: First-round winner advances + Concacaf Champions League, CAF Champions League and AFC Champions League winners enter
- Semifinals: Second-round winners advance + UEFA Champions League and Copa Libertadores winners enter
- Final: Semifinal winners
- Third-place playoff: Semifinal losers
What is the competition’s future?
Infantino, speaking ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final between Argentina and France (10 am ET | FOX, Telemundo), said there are plans for an expanded 32-team men’s Club World Cup starting in 2025. The competition would be held every four years.
That’d introduce 25 new clubs to the competition and make it “like a World Cup,” according to Infantino. Competition details and location are yet to be decided.
FIFA originally planned on staging a 24-team Club World Cup in 2021, though that was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sport’s governing body also plans to introduce a FIFA World Series, expanding chances for top clubs from different confederations to more regularly play each other. Infantino said it would occur in even years.
FIFA Club World Cup winners
Only teams from Europe (UEFA, 14) and South America (Conmebol, 4) have won the FIFA Club World Cup. In total, 18 finals have been held since 2000.
Only one Concacaf club (Liga MX's Tigres UANL in 2020) has made a FIFA Club World Cup final.
Here are all the winners.
- 2021: Chelsea (England)
- 2020: Bayern Munich (Germany)
- 2019: Liverpool (England)
- 2018: Real Madrid (Spain)
- 2017: Real Madrid (Spain)
- 2016: Real Madrid (Spain)
- 2015: Barcelona (Spain)
- 2014: Real Madrid (Spain)
- 2013: Bayern Munich (Germany)
- 2012: Corinthians (Brazil)
- 2011: Barcelona (Spain)
- 2010: Inter Milan (Italy)
- 2009: Barcelona (Spain)
- 2008: Manchester United (England)
- 2007: AC Milan (Italy)
- 2006: Internacional (Brazil)
- 2005: São Paulo (Brazil)
- 2001-04: Not held
- 2000: Corinthians (Brazil)
The Sounders are coming off a 2022 season where they won CCL, but their co-league-record 13-year Audi MLS Cup Playoffs streak ended.
Head coach Brian Schmetzer’s team finished 11th in the Western Conference standings, six points off the postseason pace as injuries (back half) and CCL focus (front half) took a toll.
But Seattle also have one of MLS’s most-talented rosters, sending four players to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and rostering midfielder Albert Rusnak, midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro and striker Raul Ruidiaz as Designated Players. They likely don’t have a ton of flexibility for offseason moves, unless players are transferred out to create room for additions.
Seattle made four MLS Cups in a five-year span (2016-20), winning in both ‘16 and ‘19. They routinely are one of MLS’s top clubs attendance-wise.
