How would failing to qualify for the Club World Cup affect Barcelona?

Barça are practically out of the 2025 edition on ranking. They need to win this year’s tournament to qualify, or advance two rounds further than Atleti.

Barcelona’s economic prospects can hardly be described as rosy at the moment and things could be about to get worse. The Blaugranas could be dealt another blow that would be detrimental to both the club’s reputation on the world stage and their finances. Unless there is a spectacular turnaround of events, Barça are practically guaranteed to miss the revamped Club World Cup that will be played in the United States in 2025 - all because of the recent Champions League group stage defeats to Shakhtar Donetsk and Antwerp.

The new Club World Cup will boast a potent format of 32 teams, divided into eight groups of four, with the teams finishing in the top two positions advancing to the Last 16. The revamped tournament will feature 12 European clubs, with a maximum of two clubs per country. That’s where the problems start for Barça, who last won the Champions League in 2015 (all of the champions since 2021 qualify automatically, which means Real Madrid are guaranteed a place). Spain’s second berth will be contested by Barcelona and Atlético - unless Real Sociedad go on to win the current edition of the Champions League, in which case the Txuri-urdinak will join Madrid as the Spanish representatives.

In the current ranking for European clubs, based on results gained in UEFA competition, Atlético are on 62 points while Barcelona are seven behind on 55. The ranking methodology states that two points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and one point per round as team progresses in the competition (four points are given for qualifying for the group stage and five for making the