Ancelotti picks six from one Brazilian club for preliminary squad
Ancelotti picks six from one Brazilian club for preliminary squad
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.
Flamengo has six players on the preliminary list for Carlo Ancelotti's first call-up.
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According to ge, Pedro, Gerson, Alexsandro, Danilo, Wesley, and Léo Ortiz are part of the initial list made by the new Brazilian national team coach.
The information was revealed by the website on Saturday (17), when the CBF sent out notifications, requesting the release of all clubs involved in the call-up.
The final list, with 23 names, will be announced by the Italian himself on the 26th, during his presentation in Rio de Janeiro.
The coach's first challenges at the helm of Brazil will be against Ecuador on June 5th in Guayaquil, and Paraguay on the 10th at the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo.
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To meet a FIFA requirement, the CBF must notify the clubs of the called-up players 15 days before the presentation, which will take place on the 2nd.
That's why the notification was made on Saturday afternoon.
Carlo Ancelotti defined the preliminary list in meetings with the director of selections, Rodrigo Caetano, and the technical coordinator, Juan, during the week in Madrid.
The preliminary list has around 50 names and will be reduced to 23 players, who will be announced by the coach during his presentation.
The CBF made the initial list of 52 players public in March, but this time will keep it secret, according to ge.
📸 PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU - AFP or licensors
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New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Uncovering the secrets of football's goalkeeper gloves
When Liverpool sealed the Premier League title in April with a 5-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, Alisson followed another goalkeeping great into one particular record book. The 32-year-old became the first goalkeeper since Manchester United's Peter Schmeichel in 1999 to win the English top flight wearing gloves manufactured by Reusch. Advertisement When Liverpool won the Premier League in 2020, Alisson wore Nike gloves, but in October 2023, he signed a deal with Reusch, which meant a return to a brand he used as a young goalkeeper in Novo Hamburgo, just north of Porto Alegre in Brazil. It was a major coup for the German brand, which also has Liverpool's second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher on its books. Reusch is one of the oldest brands in glove manufacturing. Alongside West Germany and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Sepp Maier, they created what is thought to be the first glove with a latex palm in 1973. After Maier's appearances at the 1974 World Cup, which West Germany won, latex gloves began to rapidly catch on. Before then, the take-up of goalkeeper gloves had risen steadily. Some wore rubber gardening gloves, others opted for the warmth of wool in the winter. In the 1940s, one early glove adopter was an Argentinian, Amadeo Carrizo, who played for River Plate more than 500 times from 1945 to 1968. In 1966, Gordon Banks wore gloves as England won the World Cup and rumour has it that Banks liked to garden in his old gloves before throwing them away. But it took nearly 100 years for goalkeeper gloves to take off. In 1885, an English manufacturer called William Sykes patented a leather glove design for goalkeeping, known to be one of the first patented glove designs. For the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Banks wore an experimental pair with rubber dimples on the palms, the gloves he used in his famous save against Brazilian forward Pele. Eight years later in Argentina, only one World Cup goalkeeper, Scotland's Alan Rough, did not wear gloves. The technology and aesthetic allure of goalkeeper gloves have also significantly improved. The ill-fitting, bulky designs of the 1980s and '90s are a distant memory, with elite goalkeepers now wearing lightweight 'second skin' gloves individually moulded to their hands. Modern iterations can feature air vents, latex punching zones and strapless wrists. Advertisement Whether they are smothering them in Vaseline or getting through a new pair every game, goalkeepers would be lost without their gloves. Here, we will look at why goalkeepers are wearing non-stick gloves, discuss a frustrating gap in the market for women's gloves, and touch on a curious lack of sustainability. Goalkeeper gloves tend to follow the same pattern, though Reusch is among the brands to have different cuts to pick from. On the cheaper end of the spectrum, where you can get gloves for around £25 ($33), the combination of fabrics in the gloves, such as mesh and rubber, is less costly to produce on a mass scale. These gloves will usually follow a flat design, unlike the ergonomic focus of what elite goalkeepers wear, which retail from £80 to £180. The price rise is because of the expensive materials used, such as neoprene, a synthetic rubber also used in wetsuits. Typical designs also include velcro wrist wraps, though many glove manufacturers are now opting for strapless wrists or a latex wraparound to help with ball control. Air vents are becoming a popular way of keeping hands from sweating as much and a 'punching side' of the glove has been a design focal point in recent years. In October 2021, former Liverpool goalkeeper Rylee Foster was told she was lucky to be alive and that she would never play football again after being involved in a car crash in her native Canada. Two years later, after extensive rehabilitation, Foster, now 26, went against all odds, pulling on her gloves again in a professional match for A-League Women side Wellington Phoenix. After returning to the Women's Super League in England with Everton this season, Foster is now playing in the Women's Championship for Durham, whose home ground is an artificial pitch at Maiden Castle sports centre. 'I'm going through gloves a lot faster than I normally would (playing on artificial grass),' Foster says. 'I wash my gloves after every single training session, after every single match, and I can get a month out of a pair of gloves.' After using a pair for around a month, professional goalkeepers, even those wearing the most expensive gloves, regularly notice a drop-off in grip. 'It is very common,' Bob Fidler, country manager at Reusch UK, says. 'Peter Schmeichel, when he was wearing our brand, used to go through 50 or 60 pairs a season — and then footballers have gloves they wear for training, so that number goes up. That's part of their sponsorship deal. We give them the gloves for free and then they can do what they want. More often than not, goalkeepers will sign them and throw them into the crowd for fans, or give them to friends or family.' Advertisement 'Gloves are just so expensive,' Dan Atherton, a goalkeeper for Warrington Town in the sixth tier of English football, says. 'If you want them to be top quality, most glove brands will only last you a month. Outfield players will say they only cost £60, but that is eight or nine times a year.' Once the grip on a glove is gone, Foster, Atherton and most other goalkeepers tend to give their worn gloves to young fans. 'If I can inspire just one person to become a goalkeeper by doing that, I will. It's not like we're a fruitful group, us goalkeepers,' Foster laughs. 'We always have to keep convincing people to try it out.' In 2016, former England goalkeeper Carly Telford helped Precision co-design gloves specifically for women. Features included a narrow fit, smaller finger length and tighter grip around the back of the hand. But almost a decade on and most women's goalkeepers continue to wear men's gloves in smaller sizes. To find your glove size, most brands require you to measure the width of the middle of your palm and the length from the bottom of your hand to the top of your middle finger. 'It's hard to find something that's slim-fitting,' Foster, who is in discussions with English brand VOS on designing a glove for women to use, says. 'A lot of gloves are generic and mass-produced. A lot of women have smaller hands and it's not easy finding something that fits you. We've had a lot of conversations about how we can tailor a glove to fit my hand and what that would be like for other female goalkeepers.' On average, women wear size seven or eight gloves and men would typically wear a nine or 10. Some goalkeepers like to wear a size down to ensure a snug feeling, but it remains a problem for female goalkeepers trying to find the perfect fit. Safety is another key factor in innovation. Adidas is one of the brands exploring how to protect goalkeepers' fingers from overextension. That led them to bring out 'Fingersave' technology, inserts built into the glove designed to reduce impact when saving shots. Advertisement 'They protect your fingers from either going into overextension when you're saving the ball,' Emily Burns, a Canadian goalkeeper playing for Nantes in France, says. 'But I prefer not to use them. I usually tape my wrists and fingers — it's not something I need to do from an injury standpoint, it's just kind of a superstition.' Punching zones have proven to be another area for reinvention. Adidas put almost 300 spikes on the back of the Predator Pro Hybrid gloves, which Gianluigi Donnarumma wore as Italy won the European Championship in 2021. 'Some gloves have specific designs that are supposed to help with your punching ability,' Burns says. 'Directionally, if you want to punch in a certain way, it'll help you. Before, they were a bit bulkier and not as comfortable, but now you feel like when you go to punch the ball, it's pretty natural and comfortable.' There are countless different glove cuts and goalkeepers prefer different styles. 'When I was growing up, the only cut that existed was 'flat palm',' Matt Pyzdrowski, The Athletic's goalkeeping expert, says. 'I remember the first time I put on a roll-finger glove, where the latex wraps around the finger, my mind was blown. It felt like it created a bigger surface area to catch and control the ball. 'They've even made hybrid gloves, a mix between roll-finger and flat-palm 'negative' cuts —negative is where the stitching goes inside, so it is a bigger surface area than a flat palm but not as big as a roll finger. The roll finger is where the latex goes all the way around and the stitching is on the back side of the hand. 'The advantage of the negative cut is that it fits tighter to your fingers. It's for goalkeepers who want that second-skin feel, where it feels like you're just using your hands.' When jumping into a crowd of players and trying to punch or catch a football, injuries can occur, requiring goalkeepers to wear specially adapted gloves. Advertisement Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale used a glove with four fingers during a 0-0 draw against Fulham in December. In 2023, former England goalkeeper Rob Green told Amazon Prime Sport how in the last decade of his career, his little finger on his right hand 'started to die' after being repeatedly broken and dislocated. He finished his career wearing a webbed-style glove to accommodate it. Given the high risk involved in goalkeeping, one thing you might not expect goalkeepers to wear are gloves without any grip. Burns and Foster are advocates of non-sticky training gloves made by VOS, which was founded by three brothers, Mark, Lee (a former Rangers goalkeeper) and Shaun Robinson. Together, they founded a leading goalkeeper content creation account called The Modern-Day Goalkeeper, which has 3.5 million followers on TikTok. One of their most successful innovations has been the slippy training glove. 'It is a glove that makes training harder and when you take them off and wear your match gloves, it is going to feel really easy,' Mark Robinson explains. 'Goalies go through a whole week without making one mistake because it's all premeditated. They never have a chance to deal with failure and we've designed a glove where your failure rate goes really high, and then you start to develop a more positive relationship with failure. It allows you to deal with and recover from mistakes in training.' 'It really forces you to trust your own hands and develop your handwork, too. It has given me even more confidence in my catching ability,' Burns, 27, says. Robinson says the slippy glove has, in the past, been used at La Masia, Barcelona's iconic academy, thanks to former Barca goalkeeping coach Xavi Ferrando. 'We had a really good relationship with him and he was really interested in using them,' Robinson says. 'We went over to Barcelona to meet him and watch training. He had the goalkeepers from under-14s all the way up to the B team using them. But it was one of those things where we couldn't get any photos or videos, so we couldn't share anything about it. All we could say was that they were wearing them.' In April 2024, Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana caused a stir within the goalkeeping community when it was found he was using Vaseline, petroleum jelly typically used to heal dry skin, to keep his gloves moist during games. 'I do it sometimes, but I don't know why Onana is doing it,' Atherton, a former Liverpool academy goalkeeper who trained with Alisson, says. 'I can't wrap my head around that. Advertisement 'He probably plays with a fresh pair of gloves every week, on pitches where there's rarely any loose mud. I don't see why he needs it. I use it sometimes if I have gloves that are getting towards the end of their life but I am playing well so don't want to throw them away yet. Vaseline gives the grip an extra couple of weeks.' 'There are two reasons you might use substance on your gloves,' Pyzdrowski says. 'One, because you want to extend the life of an old pair, or two, because it actually does make the grip better. 'For someone like Onana, it's probably a psychological thing. When he has Vaseline on his gloves, it makes him feel more confident. A sticky substance on your gloves can improve your grip of the ball and keep out a lot of dirt and dust from getting into your latex.' At Reusch, Fidler's recommendation is to slightly dampen the gloves. 'It activates the grains in the latex to offer a better grip if the gloves are slightly wetter,' Fidler says. 'Before first use, you should wash the gloves to get any resins out of the palm and then keep them damp. Always wash after use and just keep it damp for the next time. Goalkeepers do spit on gloves — some of that is a habit, something they've always done. Spitting doesn't make much difference because the glove should be damp anyway.' As for the Vaseline debate, Reusch looked into it and found no real benefits of wearing petroleum jelly lathered onto the palm. 'It is not going to aid the grip in any way,' Fidler adds. 'Water is quite adequate for doing that.' 'You will notice almost every single goalkeeper sits a towel next to their goal and that's to take off some of the water that gets on and into your gloves,' Pyzdrowski says. 'When your gloves get too much water in them, they get heavy and then you can't feel the ball. If you want to catch the ball, you need to be able to feel it.' Advertisement Goalkeepers are creatures of habit, but their union continually embraces changes in glove design and technology every season. For those in the glove-making business, the pursuit of perfection is never-ending and will probably never be reached. Will a more sustainable glove ever exist? 'That would mean someone needs to come up with a better product,' Pyzdrowksi says. 'I just don't know what that would be because the focus now is on improving the latex. The best latex gloves are usually softer. That means they're less durable. If you use a harder latex, the grip won't be as good. 'The really cheap pairs last a lot longer, but they will never have good grip. The really expensive ones have incredible grip, but they just don't last just because they get torn up.' (Top photos: Alisson and Peter Schmeichel; by Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
New York Times
2 hours ago
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Club World Cup team guide – Chelsea: Expensively assembled fringe contenders or a serious threat?
FIFA Club World Cup champions in 2022, Chelsea are relishing the chance to make history by winning the first edition of Gianni Infantino's expanded tournament in the United States. Group D opponents Los Angeles FC, Flamengo and Esperanto de Tunis will inspire little fear in Enzo Maresca's expensively assembled squad, but even if they match expectations and advance as winners, the degree of difficulty will rise sharply in the knockout stage for a club emerging from two seasons outside the UEFA Champions League. Chelsea are determined to show the best version of themselves in the Club World Cup, and not just because of the lucrative financial rewards on offer. This tournament also presents a golden opportunity to reclaim their seat at elite club football's top table after a bumpy few years. Follow the Club World Cup on The Athletic this summer… A stirring end to the season has Chelsea feeling very good about themselves as they head to the United States. Maresca's young team ground out the results they needed to secure a fourth-place finish on the final day of the Premier League campaign, then justified their status as overwhelming favourites to win the UEFA Conference League with a comprehensive dismantling of Real Betis in the final in Wroclaw. Advertisement Chelsea's group stage opposition at the Club World Cup may remind them of the level of team they faced in the Conference League en route to beating Betis. It will certainly be closer to that than to the weekly examinations that Maresca's side encounter in the Premier League, which may allow them to ease their way into their best rhythm. It would be foolish to discount Chelsea as threats to win the competition — this is a club who have won every major domestic and European honour and their golden age lasted for much of the first quarter of this century. But with different owners, a relatively inexperienced coach and the youngest squad in the competition, they are best classified as fringe contenders. Chelsea qualified for this summer's Club World Cup by lifting the Champions League in May 2021. That triumph in Porto feels like a lifetime ago, given just how much has happened at Stamford Bridge since: sanctions, a club sale and an almost total overhaul on and off the pitch. Club captain Reece James is the only surviving member of that team in Maresca's squad. In the first three years of its ownership, the consortium led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly has moved fast and broken things. Virtually every trace of the Roman Abramovich era has gone and the revolution has been painful, with Chelsea plummeting to 12th in the Premier League in 2022-23 and finishing sixth in 2023-24 while spending aggressively on transfers. A fourth-placed finish this season, coupled with a first trophy for Clearlake and Boehly to celebrate, creates the impression that the new Chelsea that will grace the Club World Cup stage is ready to compete again, even if it looks nothing like the old one. Chelsea play a Pep Guardiola-influenced style: a possession-focused, positional game. The nominal starting formation is a standard 4-3-3 but one of Maresca's full-backs will usually 'invert', often into the base of midfield and sometimes into one of the attacking half-spaces. In possession, the goal is for Chelsea to arrange themselves with a three-man defence and a three-man attack with a midfield box between them, creating the possibility for overloads around opposing formations. The goalkeeper is also encouraged to act as an '11th outfielder' in possession to facilitate playing out through and around pressure. Maresca's aim is to control games by creating numerical superiority on the ball. Maresca has risen fast to the Chelsea job. A midfielder who enjoyed a decorated but nomadic playing career, he was encouraged to go into coaching by Manuel Pellegrini when the two men were at Malaga in 2011. Seven years later, Pellegrini got Maresca on to a Premier League touchline, hiring the Italian as part of his backroom staff at West Ham United. No wonder, then, that Maresca still calls Pellegrini his 'professional dad'. Guardiola, however, has been every bit as impactful on his coaching journey, both in the season Maresca spent coaching Manchester City's elite development squad to the Premier League 2 title in 2020-21 and in Maresca's experience as Guardiola's assistant in the 2022-23 treble-winning campaign. Advertisement Those stints at City bookended a short, failed spell as coach of Parma and primed Maresca for his next opportunity to strike out on his own. He made the most of it, guiding Leicester City to promotion from the Championship as title winners in 2023-24 and attracting admirers among the Chelsea hierarchy in the process. Maresca was a bold choice to succeed Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge, and his first season at Chelsea had plenty of challenges — not least the open hostility of supporters less than enamoured with his style of play at times. But he delivered a top-four Premier League finish and a trophy, and comes into the Club World Cup in a strong position. He may have looked out of sorts for much of 2025, but Cole Palmer remains the undisputed star of this Chelsea team. That reality was underlined by his thrilling assists for the two goals that turned the Conference League final on its head: the first a beautiful in-swinging cross with his left foot on to the head of Enzo Fernandez, the second a brilliant turn followed by a pinpoint delivery with his right to meet Nicolas Jackson's run to the near post. 'I was just sick of getting the ball and going backwards and sideways,' Palmer explained after the match. He is the only Chelsea player capable of changing a game simply at his whim. There are a number of candidates given the youth of Chelsea's squad, but the player most supporters will be intrigued to watch in the U.S. is Andrey Santos. The dynamic Brazilian has blossomed on loan at BlueCo sister club Strasbourg and could bring some much-needed physicality and goal threat to Maresca's midfield. Chelsea fans have cultivated a vibrant repertoire of songs about their team, individual players and rival clubs over their long history. One particularly rousing supporter anthem is Carefree, bellowed to the tune of the English hymn Lord of the Dance': Carefree, wherever you may be, We are the famous CFC, And we don't give a f**k, Whoever you may be, Cos we are the famous CFC. Four years ago, when The Athletic asked this precise question of Chelsea fans on X, the answer was emphatic, with Tottenham Hotspur garnering 58.6 per cent of the vote. Spurs serve both as Chelsea's favourite punchline and their preferred punching bag. It's one of football's stranger rivalries that dates back to the 1960s, when Tottenham — with the help of Chelsea youth products Jimmy Greaves and Terry Venables — triumphed in a 1967 FA Cup final meeting and were seen as the more glamorous and successful club. The roles have long since reversed, but the animosity endures. Chelsea were the first club (along with Arsenal) to wear numbered shirts for a league match, against Swansea Town on August 25, 1928. Chelsea have not been the neutral's easiest choice since the 1990s, when they charmed with Gianfranco Zola and a cosmopolitan collective of charismatic veterans. Abramovich's disruptive billions instead made them compelling villains and the vast transfer spending of Clearlake and Boehly has done little to endear them to anyone not affiliated with Stamford Bridge. But if you want a reason to cheer for Chelsea, just watch Palmer. His nonchalant genius is of the Gianfranco Zola lineage, and forms the essence of why football is worth your time. (All kick-offs ET/BST) (Top photos: Eurasia Sport Images, Charlotte Wilson/Getty; design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic)
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Club World Cup: Everything you need to know about the revamped tournament
This summer's revamped and expanded FIFA Club World Cup will see 32 teams from across the world compete across 11 cities in the United States. With it being a first-of-its-kind tournament, there are many questions to answer as intrigue builds over how it will play out. The first match is on June 15, so it's time to get up to speed with the talking points, including the $1billion (£750million) prize pot, how Lionel Messi is playing, and the fans travelling potentially thousands of miles to watch their teams compete in the group stage. Follow the Club World Cup on The Athletic this summer… Let's start with the competition itself. The Club World Cup is a 32-team tournament organised by FIFA, football's world governing body. All six of FIFA's confederations are represented — 12 clubs from UEFA (Europe), six from CONMEBOL (South America), five from Concacaf (North America), four from AFC (Asia), four from CAF (Africa) and one from OFC (Oceania). Advertisement Brazil is the country with the most participating teams (four: Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and Palmeiras), with the U.S. the only other nation providing more than two sides (three: Inter Miami, Los Angeles FC and Seattle Sounders). Teams have been drawn into eight groups of four, with each side playing their group opponents once. The top two of each group will progress to the round of 16, and from there it will be single-match knockouts to the final. We have put together all the groups and a full fixture list in one handy article. FIFA's two-club limit on teams from a single country — except if more than two clubs from the same country had won their leading continental tournament, as was the case with the Brazilian teams, and 'hosts' Inter Miami — meant some of Europe's more renowned sides, such as La Liga's champions Barcelona and Premier League winners Liverpool, missed out even though they were ranked higher on the pathway than, for example, Austria's Red Bull Salzburg. Some of the world's best-known clubs are, however, playing, including Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and River Plate. Look out for Auckland City of New Zealand, the only representatives from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). They have won the region's Champions League 11 times in 14 years, but can they compete with global stars? Botafogo from Brazil could be an interesting watch. They won the Copa Libertadores in 2024 but are close to an agreement to sell three players (striker Igor Jesus, left-back Cuiabano, and centre-back Jair Cunha) to Nottingham Forest. Groups A, D, E, and F only have one European team, so teams from another continent will progress to the round of 16 from these groups. In Group H, Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia) and Pachuca (Mexico) should challenge Salzburg (Austria) for second place behind Real Madrid. Advertisement Paris Saint-Germain will be looking to add to their treble of the Champions League, Ligue 1, and Coupe de France this season. The way PSG demolished Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final makes them the form European team. Real Madrid, with five titles, won the most Club World Cups in its previous format, and with their squad — Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior, to name just three — they will be one of the teams to watch, at least. Manchester City, though below par in the Premier League, should be dangerous opponents under Pep Guardiola, especially as the team's form improved slightly towards the end of their league campaign. Most of the European teams are expected to progress through the group stage, but Flamengo lead Brazil's Serie A after 11 games and could be a threat. Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) reached the final of the CAF Champions League this campaign. Lionel Messi is set to feature, but the inclusion of his Inter Miami team has raised eyebrows. In the past, the host nation's top league champions were awarded a bonus qualification spot as 'hosts'. Inter Miami qualified after winning the 2024 Supporters' Shield, awarded to the MLS team with the best regular-season record, but they were not the national champions in the U.S. The winners of the MLS Cup, a play-off tournament based on league rankings, are typically regarded as the true winners. Messi and Inter Miami were knocked out of the 2024 play-offs in the first round by Atlanta United, with LA Galaxy beating New York Red Bulls in the final. Miami's inclusion means Messi and former Barcelona team-mates Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba are set to play. With Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr contract coming to an end, the 40-year-old posted a cryptic message on his social media last week: 'This chapter is over. The story? Still being written.' FIFA president Gianni Infantino suggested Ronaldo may play for one of the teams at the Club World Cup in an interview with YouTuber IShowSpeed, but the Portugal forward has confirmed he will not be taking part. Advertisement Neymar is another global football icon whose contract expires this summer, with his future at Santos uncertain. Clubs have a special transfer window between June 1 and June 10 to add players before the opening game kicks off in Miami on June 14. Two of the world's best strikers, Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) and Erling Haaland (Manchester City), will feature, too. Real Madrid will have new manager Xabi Alonso in the dugout, and former Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to make his Madrid debut after they paid a €10million (£8.4m; $11.4m) fee for him to join before the tournament. Liam Delap could make his debut for Chelsea after the club signed him for £30m from Ipswich Town. Inter Milan will have a new manager, expected to be former defender Cristian Chivu, after Simone Inzaghi left for Al Hilal. Other deals could see Jonathan Tah feature for Bayern Munich and Jorginho for Flamengo. As The Athletic's Steve Madeley has explained, standard player contracts in Europe typically run from July 1 to June 30, meaning clubs involved in the Club World Cup could find themselves with players leaving as free agents during the tournament. For this reason, there is a mid-tournament registration window from June 27 to July 3. This will allow clubs to replace out-of-contract players with players who might have joined at the end of their contracts elsewhere, or been bought from other clubs after the end of the extra transfer window. As part of the mid-tournament window, clubs can add two extra players, potentially taking their squad size from 35 up to 37. A maximum of six changes to their squad overall are permitted. For a new player to take part in a Club World Cup match, his club must have registered him and notified FIFA at least 48 hours before kick-off. Players cannot play for more than one club in the tournament. Advertisement Through winning continental tournaments (CAF, AFC, UEFA, Concacaf, CONMEBOL) or a ranking pathway from 2020-21 up to this season. At the end of May, LAFC won a play-off game against Club America to replace Club Leon, who were removed for failing to meet FIFA's criteria on multi-club ownership. UEFA's 12 places were decided by Champions League performances between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 seasons, so the winners through these seasons — Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid — all qualified. Other European teams qualified through UEFA rankings over the four seasons. The opening game will be held at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium on June 14 and the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the 2026 World Cup final will be held, on July 13. All 63 matches will be held in the United States, a year before the country co-hosts the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico. The 12 host stadiums are: Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium Charlotte, Bank of America Stadium Cincinnati, TQL Stadium Los Angeles, Rose Bowl Stadium Miami, Hard Rock Stadium Nashville, Geodis Park New Jersey, MetLife Stadium Orlando, Camping World Stadium Orlando, Inter&Co Stadium Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field Seattle, Lumen Field Washington, DC, Audi Field The Concacaf Gold Cup, which is also being hosted in the U.S. between June 14 and July 6, will overlap with the Club World Cup. Committed Auckland City fans will travel more than 17,000 miles to reach TQL Stadium (Cincinnati), Inter&Co Stadium (Orlando), and Geodis Park (Nashville,) then home again, unless they progress to the knockout stages. From the United Arab Emirates, Al Ain will play two of their group games at Audi Field (Washington, DC) and one at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta), amounting to around 15,000 miles to go to all three group games and a return trip to the UAE. Advertisement By contrast, two of Inter Miami's games are in Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium, with the other in Atlanta. Last June saw two of Europe's biggest players' unions, the English Professional Footballers' Association and its French counterparts, the Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionnels, join forces to launch a case against FIFA, arguing the rights of its members were being violated under European Union (EU) laws. In an unprecedented move in October, FIFPro — the global players' union — and the European Leagues, which represents 39 leagues in 33 countries, filed a complaint to the European Commission, an executive branch of the EU, to protect the welfare of their players. FIFA argues that its new tournament aligns with unchanged attempts to 'protect the overall interests of world football at all levels of the game' and has accused major European leagues opposed to the Club World Cup of acting with 'hypocrisy and self-interest'. FIFA has consistently stressed that the football calendar, one that will run until 2030, was decided in consultation with all stakeholders, including player unions, before it was signed off. FIFPro, among others, disagrees. It sees no room for the Club World Cup to be played every four years, especially given the expansion of other leading competitions, including the Champions League and World Cup, which will be a 48-team event for the first time next summer. The Athletic has reported concerns within the U.S. government about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of visa applications before the Club World Cup, and many more for the 2026 World Cup. Philip Buckingham General sale tickets are sold, using dynamic pricing that can fluctuate up or down, via Ticketmaster. Some tickets are available for fans of the participating clubs at The Athletic reported that FIFA's quest to fill stadiums is floundering and the organisation has dropped the price of tickets, having unveiled a new tier of lower pricing for games during the tournament. Advertisement In a statement to The Athletic, FIFA confirmed: 'New batches of more affordable match tickets have been released this week.' The organisation did not clarify what this new bracket refers to, but tickets on FIFA's partner Ticketmaster are now showing up as vastly reduced compared to the lowest prices that had been available to fans. During the group stages, Argentine side River Plate against Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds appears to be the lowest-priced ticket, selling for as low as $24 for the match at Lumen Field in Seattle at 3pm ET on June 17. Real Madrid's group games are proving to be popular. No tickets are available for less than $132 to watch their game against Mexican side Pachuca (in Charlotte), while prices start at $310 against Saudi Arabian team Al Hilal (in Miami) and $253 against Red Bull Salzburg (in Philadelphia). For the semi-finals, the cheapest tickets on general sale cost about $300, which is substantially down on FIFA's original aims a few months ago. The best-priced ticket to the final is $538, but thousands of seats remain available. Adam Crafton There is a $1billion pot to be shared. European clubs will take most of this. There is $525m on offer for participation alone, with Europe's 12 competing clubs taking home $306m (58 per cent). They will get between $12.8m and $38.2m in a 'ranking based on sporting and commercial criteria' for participation, with the six South American clubs getting a flat fee of $15.2m. Auckland City, the only Oceania club, will receive $3.58m, with the rest, from North and Central America, Africa and Asia, receiving $9.55m for qualifying. The remaining $475m will be shared based on performance. Having a perfect tournament on the way to the title will amount to $87.62m. Part of this sporting performance pot, the final will become the most lucrative game in football, with $40m going to the winners and $30m to the losers. This $70m prize exceeds the $47m (€43.5m) on offer in the UEFA Champions League final. The trophy, which Infantino unveiled alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, was designed by FIFA and jewellery brand Tiffany & Co. Infantino's name is inscribed twice on the trophy, which displays the names of all 211 of FIFA's member nations. It consists of a central disc and three outer rings, meaning it can be displayed as a flat shield or opened with a key to reveal 'a multifaceted and orbital structure'. Advertisement All 63 matches will be broadcast free around the world on the online platform of DAZN, which struck a deal worth $1billion with FIFA in December for the global rights. In the United Kingdom, Channel 5 will show 23 of the 63 matches live following a sublicensing deal with DAZN. These will include four round-of-16 matches, two quarter-final games, one semi-final and the final.
