The FIFA Club World Cup concludes this week with the semifinals and final in New Jersey.
Fluminense and Chelsea lock horns on Tuesday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, before Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain contest the other match a day later at the same venue.
The winners of those semifinals will meet in the final on Sunday. Traditionally, the teams beaten in the last four would play a third-place game the day before. However, in the expanded 2025 competition, things are being done a little differently.
The Sporting News looks at FIFA's decision on a Club World Cup bronze-medal match and what it might mean for the World Cup next year.
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Is there a third-place match at the Club World Cup?
There is no third-place playoff game at the expanded FIFA Club World Cup. This is despite the fact that a bronze-medal game was commonplace at the annual seven-team tournament that preceded the new format.
That means this week's beaten semifinalists will not have to stay in the United States to prepare for an additional fixture.
Why is there no Club World Cup third-place playoff?
FIFA decided not to include a bronze-medal playoff game at the expanded tournament so that participating clubs could resume their domestic commitments as soon as they had been eliminated.
The sport's governing body said: "For the inaugural edition of the this elite global competition, FIFA decided not to include this match to ensure that clubs and players who do not make the final can transition to their next commitments as soon as possible."
The decision seems entirely sensible and was perhaps motivated by some of the opposition towards the Club World Cup expansion. Certainly, the majority of competing sides would not have wanted to stay in the U.S. for an additional few days after losing a semifinal simply to play in a third-place game: Fluminense are partway through their 2025 season in Brazil, while Chelsea, Real Madrid and PSG all have preseason programmes due to start in the coming week or so.
Will there be a third-place match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
The men's World Cup in 2026 will include a third-place playoff, despite the decision not to stage such a game at the Club World Cup.
The international tournament, which will be played across the United States, Canada and Mexico, will see an expanded field of 48 national teams compete from June 11 to July 19 next year. The bronze-medal game between the losing semifinalists will take place on July 18 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
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