FIFA announce 12 venues for 2025 Club World Cup, with final set for MetLife Stadium

FIFA announced their venues for the 2025 Club World Cup, with the majority of the tournament to be played on the East Coast of the United States starting next June.

These are the venues, revealed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the Global Music Festival in New York Saturday:

• The Rose Bowl, Los Angeles
• Lumen Field, Seattle
• Camping World Stadium, Orlando
• Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
• GEODIS Park, Nashville
• Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
• TQL Stadium, Cincinnati
• Audi Field, Washington
• MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
• Hard Rock Stadium, Miami
• Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

The tournament will start on June 15, and conclude four weeks later on July 13. The final will take place at MetLife Stadium.

The uncertainty around the Club World Cup has been met with scrutiny, with questions surrounding around FIFA's revamped marquee competition. Thirty-two teams are set to participate in the event, split into eight groups, with the top two from each advancing to a knockout stage.

The venue unveiling comes at a crucial juncture in the planning of the tournament. With just nine months before its scheduled kickoff, FIFA is yet to secure a TV rights deal or sponsorships for the competition. Meanwhile, both clubs and players have expressed their concern with the tournament, and how it might affect welfare at the end of a busy European season.

In the announcement at Global Citizen Festival, Infantino expressed his excitement at the start of the competition: "We are not only taking club football to the world, we are taking the very best of global club football across America."

FIFA has struggled to nail down a TV rights package for the tournament. They entered negotiations with Apple surrounding a possible deal, but the tech giant offered $1 billion, a quarter of FIFA's reported asking price.

Infantino's announcement could set the wheels in motion to provide answers to many of the tournament's open questions. With the stadiums now public, there would appear to be more room for sponsors to negotiate, and a TV rights deal to be hashed out. Either way, countdown now begins for the first match in June.