The groups for the new-look FIFA Club World Cup to be held next year in the United States, have been revealed with the draw having been conducted on Thursday in Miami, Florida – the same city that will host the opening match on June 15th.
In some of the more eye-catching results of the draw, Manchester City were grouped with Juventus while Paris Saint-Germain drew both Atletico Madrid and Botafogo in their group.
Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami will feature in Group A alongside FC Porto and Palmeiras while European champions Real Madrid were drawn into Group H with Neymar’s Al Hilal of Suadi Arabia.
Below you can see the full groups for the tournament:
Group A
Palmeiras (Brazil)
FC Porto (Portugal)
Al Ahly (Egypt)
Inter Miami (USA)
Group B
Paris Saint-Germain (France)
Atletico Madrid (Spain)
Botafogo (Brazil)
Seattle Sounders (USA)
Group C
Bayern Munich (Germany)
Auckland City FC (New Zealand)
Boca Juniors (Argentina)
Benfica (Portugal)
Group D
Flamengo (Brazil)
Esperance Tunis (Tunisia)
Chelsea (England)
Club Leon (Mexico)
Group E
River Plate (Argentina)
Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan)
Monterrey (Mexico)
Inter Milan (Italy)
Group F
Fluminense (Brazil)
Borussia Dortmund (Germany)
Ulsan (South Korea)
Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa)
Group G
Manchester City (England)
Wydad (Morocco)
Al Ain (UAE)
Juventus (Italy)
Group H
Real Madrid (Spain)
Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Pachuca (Mexico)
Salzburg (Austria)
The group winners and runners-up will progress to the Round of 16, which is followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
The final will take place on July 13th at MetLife Stadium in New York.
Rules of the draw:
There was a general principle that no group could feature more than one team from the same confederation except for UEFA (Europe), which is represented by 12 clubs at the tournament. As a result, four of the eight groups feature two European clubs.
Clubs from the same member association could not be grouped together either and all clubs from Pot 1 were allocated to the first position of the group into which they were drawn.
For scheduling purposes, both clubs from the USA – Inter Miami and Seattle Sounders – were automatically allocated to the fourth position in Groups A and B respectively.
