Arsenal are one of a number of big teams that will not feature in the inaugural 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, which is scheduled to kick off in June.
Despite their resurgence under Mikel Arteta and recent strong performances in both domestic and European competitions, the North London side will not be among the elite global clubs competing for the title of world champions.
For a club that has returned to Europe’s top table after years in the wilderness, the absence is frustrating, although it has received mixed reactions from the fans.
It’s also a reflection of how competitive modern football has become – both on the pitch and on the spreadsheets used to determine who qualifies for what.
Despite Arsenal’s absence, there are a few high-profile fixtures that would keep fans on the edge of their seats.
Egyptian Premier League champions Al Ahly and Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami will get the competition underway in a mouthwatering showdown that should get the fans rocking.
With just under a month left until the curtain raiser at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, fans are taking the opportunity to secure Al Ahly SC vs Inter Miami tickets from Seatsnet.com.
While there are a handful of fixtures to look forward to, Arsenal’s absence has left a bitter taste.
So, what went wrong for the Gunners? Why did a club that topped the Premier League for much of the 2022/23 season and reached the Champions League quarter-finals in 2023/24 fail to make the cut?
A new-look Club World Cup with new rules
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will be a tournament unlike any other previously held.
It used to be a small, seven-team competition hosted over two weeks. But FIFA are taking things up a notch this year, with 32 clubs set to battle it out for a chance to be crowned world champions.
FIFA has also modelled it more closely after the World Cup format. The tournament will take place in the United States from June 15 to July 13 and feature eight groups of four teams.
Each team will play three group-stage matches, and the top two from each group move into a straight knockout round.
In total, 63 matches will be played in under a month, with the winner walking away with a massive windfall worth up to £50 million.
Qualification wasn’t open to just anyone. Each confederation was allocated a set number of slots.
As the strongest of the bunch, UEFA got 12 spots based on performance in the UEFA Champions League between 2021 and 2024.
These spots were divided between clubs that won the Champions League in that timeframe and those that accumulated enough coefficient points based on their performances over the last four seasons.
That’s where things started to get tricky for Arsenal.
The two-club rule that hurt Arsenal
Arsenal have made tremendous progress under Arteta. They’ve gone from top-four obscurity to challenging for the Premier League title in three consecutive seasons over the past half a decade.
UEFA’s qualification period for the Club World Cup was based on performances from 2021 through 2024. Unfortunately for the Gunners, they didn’t return to the Champions League until 2023/24.
They didn’t have enough of a four-year European track record to build a coefficient ranking high enough to challenge the likes of Bayern Munich, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, or even FC Salzburg – who edged them out for the final European spot.
The 2023/24 Champions League campaign was Arsenal’s first in six years. Despite topping their group and showing flashes of promise, they were dumped out in the quarter-finals after losing 3-2 on aggregate against Bayern.
That exit ended their hopes of qualifying via the “tournament winner’s route” and left them at the mercy of the coefficient rankings, where they simply didn’t have the numbers to compete.
Perhaps the most frustrating part for Arsenal fans is that even with their strong 2023/24 run, they couldn’t qualify because of a rule that limited each nation to a maximum of two clubs.
That rule only comes under review if more than two clubs from a country had won the Champions League during the qualifying period.
For England, Chelsea (winners in 2021) and Manchester City (winners in 2023) took the two spots available under this cap.
That meant any other English club – including Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United – needed to win the 2023/24 Champions League to break into the competition.
It was a narrow window, and Arsenal fell just short.
By contrast, Brazil are represented by three clubs – Palmeiras, Flamengo, and Fluminense – because each won the Copa Libertadores during the qualification cycle.
Similarly, Real Madrid qualified as champions, despite Spain already being represented by Atletico Madrid through the coefficient route.
Who took Arsenal’s spot?
Adding insult to injury, the final European slot didn’t go to a global heavyweight like Liverpool, AC Milan, or Barcelona. Instead, it went to FC Salzburg – a team ranked 18th in UEFA’s performance table, behind many bigger names.
How did this happen? Salzburg managed to consistently qualify for the Champions League group stages over the last four years and even reached the Round of 16 in 2022.
That steady accumulation of points was enough to give them the edge over Arsenal, who couldn’t make it to the semi-finals.
FIFA’s system may not reward glamour or pedigree, but it does reward consistency. And in that regard, Salzburg simply beat Arsenal to the punch.
Even with Arsenal’s absence, Club World Cup tickets are in high demand as fans plan their pilgrimage to North America for the eagerly anticipated showpiece.
Frustration for some, a reluctant relief for others
Interestingly, not everyone at Arsenal is disappointed about missing the tournament.
Goalkeeper David Raya was relieved to be handed a breather after the hectic season Arsenal have endured. He’s one of many players who have slammed the congested schedule.
“We know that the calendar is what it is. It is very congested for teams that play in all competitions, now also with a Club World Cup in the summer,” he said.
“At least Arsenal are not playing it, but the risk of injury is greater.
“We players have talked a lot about the subject, and the union has to get involved, in our case, the PFA (Professional Football Association).
“We are with them – they will help us as much as possible.
“But we know that it is not from one day to the next. People have to understand that we are people, we are not robots, and an injury can change our lives.”
