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A Basic Primer for Philly Sports Fans Who Have No Idea what the “Club World Cup” is
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It’s a very slow June Friday. Phillies vs. Blue Jays tonight, but not much else otherwise.
So here’s an explainer of what’s going on at Lincoln Financial Field over the next few weeks.
The Linc is one of the venues hosting FIFA’s 2025 “Club World Cup.” Not the same as the World Cup, which is coming to the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 2026. This is a tournament where the best individual CLUB teams from around the world get together and play each other. Previously, it used to be a small competition with only a handful of teams competing, but they’ve expanded the format and the United States will host eight groups of four teams each, then the top teams go to the knockout stage and it progresses like the World Cup from there, all the way to the July 13th final at MetLife, which laid down natural grass for the tournament.
Here are the games being played in Philly:
- June 16th – Flamengo vs. Esperance de Tunis
- June 18th – Manchester City vs. Wydad AC
- June 20th – Flamengo vs. Chelsea
- June 22nd – Juventus vs. Wydad
- June 24th – Esperance vs. Chelsea
- June 26th – Red Bull Salzburg vs. Real Madrid
- June 28th – round of 16, group A winner vs. Group B runner up
- July 4th – quarterfinal game
That is a pretty good draw for Philly. We are getting four of the world’s biggest teams in Man City, Juve, Real Madrid, and Chelsea, in games that matter. These aren’t meaningless summer exhibitions. As for the other teams, Flamengo is a hugely popular club from Brazil, Esperance and Wydad are traditional African powers from Tunisia and Morocco, and Salzburg is consistently a top Austrian team that feeds talent to bigger clubs. Former Union standout Brenden Aaronson played for Salzburg.
The Philadelphia Union are not in this tournament. Maybe one day. But there are three MLS teams in Seattle, LAFC, and Miami that are playing elsewhere in the country. Seattle is in what we think is a “group of death,” with Botafogo, Paris St-Germain, and Atletico Madrid. LAFC is in the Chelsea/Esperance/Flamengo group, but does not play in Philly. Then you’ve got Miami in a group with Porto, Palmeiras, and Egypt’s Al Ahly. Honestly, Seattle getting a point out of that group would be a miracle. But if Miami and LAFC can play the Brazilian teams tough and win against the African sides, that would be raging success at this point in Major League Soccer’s existence. Nobody expects these teams to compete with PSG, Atletico, Chelsea, and Porto, but if they put in respectable performances against the other teams, that will be good.
That’s about it. It should be a fun tournament. Chelsea is actually training down in Chester, if you can believe it.
In Philadelphia, think about this as a dry run for next year’s World Cup. We’re going to be receiving large international crowds, moving folks on the subways and trains, and welcoming them to our piss-soaked parking lots. Sorry, we are welcoming them to enjoy the majesty of the South Philly Sports Complex! Then you’d think we take some notes and work out the kinks and run a smooth operation in 2026.
Here’s a further explainer:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com