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09-06-2025
LISBON/ NEW JERSEY: Cristiano Ronaldo says he’s almost certain he will not be playing at the Club World Cup, dealing a blow to FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s hopes of having one of football’s biggest attractions at the tournament.
The Portugal star confirmed on Saturday that he received “quite a few” offers from participating clubs to play for them at the tournament starting June 14, but had decided against accepting any of them.
“Some things make sense to talk about, other things don’t, and, as a person says, you can’t take part in everything,” Ronaldo said.
“You have to think about the short, medium and long term. It’s a decision practically made on my part not to go to the Club World Cup, but I’ve had quite a few invitations to go.”
Ronaldo was speaking in Munich a day before Portugal’s UEFA Nations League final against Spain.
The 40-year-old scored his 137th international goal in a 2-1 semifinal victory against Germany on Wednesday to book Portugal’s spot in the final.
“This is irrelevant right now,” Ronaldo said when first asked about the FIFA Club World Cup. “It makes no sense to talk about anything other than the national team.”
The FIFA Club World Cup starts on June 14, 2025, with the US-based tournament lasting for just under a month before the final in New Jersey on July 13.
Here is a detailed breakdown of the 12 stadium venues and 11 cities hosting the event which range from Philadelphia in the east of the country to Los Angeles on the west coast, to Atlanta in the Deep South.
Five of the Club World Cup venues Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Hard Rock Stadium, MetLife Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, and Lumen Field will also host 2026 FIFA World Cup matches.
US Host Cities and venues; 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 York-New Jersey; MetLife Stadium, Orlando; Camping World Stadium, Orlando; Inter&Co Stadium, Philadelphia; Lincoln Financial Field, Seattle; Lumen Field, Washington-DC; Audi Field.
The 2026 World Cup will have 104 matches instead of the typical 64 games due to its expanded format, football’s world governing body, FIFA, says ahead of its congress in Kigali, Rwanda.
The tournament due to take place in North America will expand from 32 to 48 teams. It will consist of 12 groups of four teams each, a change from the original planned format of 16 groups of three, FIFA announced on Tuesday.
“The revised format mitigates the risk of collusion and ensures that all the teams play a minimum of three matches while providing balanced rest time between competing teams,” FIFA said.
Co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the event will be the first edition of the quadrennial tournament in which 48 teams take part.
The 16 host cities, 11 in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada, now have 24 extra games to stage on top of the 80 they already had for the inaugural 48-team tournament.
Adding about 1.5 million more tickets will also further fuel FIFA’s expected record revenue of at least $11bn through 2026 from a tournament that will rely on using high-revenue NFL stadiums.
The confirmed format means the top two nations in each group will go through to the knockout round along with the eight best third-placed sides. (Int’l News Desk)
