Arsenal are set to miss out on the newly-expanded Club World Cup after losing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final.
The Gunners fell 3-2 on aggregate after losing 1-0 at the Allianz Arena last night. Bayern struck first through Joshua Kimmich’s 63rd-minute header, and Arsenal failed to mount a comeback. Arsenal have not made the semi-finals of the competition since 2009.
Arsenal’s loss means the final European spot goes to Red Bull Salzburg. The 32-team competition will take place in the United States in the summer of 2025.
The 2025 iteration will feature 12 European teams and six South American teams. The Asian, African and North American federations were given four slots, whilst the Oceanic federation was given one. The last slot is reserved for a team from the host country
The Austrian side will be joining the three most recent Champions League winners: Man City, Real Madrid and Chelsea. The remaining nine spots are assigned to the teams with the highest UEFA four-year club coefficients. Atletico Madrid, Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, PSG, Inter Milan, Juventus, Porto and Benfica all qualified through this metric.
Despite FC Salzburg only making the last-16 once in the past four years, and having a lower coefficient than clubs like Barcelona, Napoli and Liverpool, they qualified due to a two-club limit on teams from one country. If countries have more than two continental champions, the rule does not apply.
Arsenal had to win the Champions League to qualify.
The competition will feature Brazilian heavyweights Palmeiras, Flamengo and Fluminense, as well as teams from the United States, Mexico, Morocco, Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
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