What if we viewed the Club World Cup like college football bowl game results?
Instead of conferences during bowl season, we’re comparing confederations during the Club World Cup.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup group stage has concluded, and the 32 teams that began the tournament have now been reduced to a final 16. We’ve seen teams and fanbases from around the world compete, and while some will be headed home after a dismal performance, other teams have thrived and will continue to play for the trophy.
In college football, fans like to compare conferences as they debate their superiority. During bowl season, we’ll see fans of the SEC debate with fans from the Big Ten, while Big 12 fans may try to rank themselves above the ACC. The easiest way to compare the conferences at that point: bowl records. We see them all the time and they’re used as a barometer of how a conference may be doing during the postseason every year.
We can do the same here at the Club World Cup. With every confederation represented, we can look at the confederation records after the group stage to give a sense of how each of them are doing. So, looking at the records, along with the teams from each confederation that has done the best or performed the worst, we can get a sense of which confederations have taken advantage of this opportunity.
AFC - 2W-2D-8L (8 points)
Teams: 4
Best Team: Al Hilal
Worst Team: Urawa Red Diamonds
Conference comparison: Former Pac 12
Al Hilal was able to string together some good performances to become the only team from Asia to make it to the knockout stage. On the other side, Urawa Red Diamonds never looked comfortable on the field as they lost three times and never gave themselves a chance in the group stage. There was a lot unknown about Asia since most of the rest of the world is asleep when they play, like the former Pac 12. However, while they have some teams people have heard about, they didn’t perform well when the lights were brightest.
CAF - 2W-3D-7L (9 points)
Teams: 4
Best Team: Mamelodi Sundowns
Worst Team: Wydad AC
Conference comparison: Big 12
African teams were largely disappointing during the group stage despite bringing the passion on the field and in the stands. Mamelodi Sundowns was the only team that had a real chance to get out of the group. Wydad loses three times, but their fans were one of the main winners of the tournament, which makes sense given the name of their main supporters group. The Big 12 is a nice comparison here, where we expected a bit more from them but they fell short.
Concacaf - 2W-5D-8L (11 points)
Teams: 5
Best Team: Inter Miami
Worst Team: Pachuca
Conference comparison: ACC
Inter Miami is the class of Concacaf. Their shock win over Porto helped them through to the knockout stage, where Monterrey will join them. Meanwhile, Pachuca had probably the worst performance possible after their existence was the main reason their sister club León was expelled from the tournament before it began for having the same ownership. Three losses will likely have León fans wondering what their team could have done if they were able to compete. Most didn’t expect Concacaf to put two teams in the knockout stage, so it’s natural to compare them to the ACC.
Conmebol - 7W-8D-3L (29 points)
Teams: 6
Best Team: Flamengo
Worst Team: Boca Juniors
Conference comparison: Big Ten
Flamengo led the Brazilian surge in the group stage of this tournament. The four Brazilian teams all advance to the knockouts and have been the stars so far. Meanwhile, Argentina’s major clubs - Boca Juniors and River Plate - will head home, and it feels like in the case of Boca Juniors, they really left a prime opportunity on the table. Conmebol as a whole is the second best conference overall, but like the Big Ten they got a couple of teams that could go ahead and win it all and it wouldn’t be surprising.
Oceania - 0W-1D-2L (1 points)
Teams: 1
Best Team: Auckland City
Worst Team: Auckland City
Conference comparison: Big Sky
Oceania only had one team in Auckland City, a semipro team that captured the world’s attention during the group stage. While they got shelled by Bayern Munich in their first match 10-0, they were able to draw Boca Juniors on the final matchday to really head home with pride. They really are the Big Sky conference...everyone loves them and were pulling for the monumental upset (like a FCS team over a SEC team). However, they found that even inspired performances weren’t quite enough to move on in this tournament.
UEFA - 22W-7D-7L (73 points)
Teams: 12
Best Team: Manchester City
Worst Team: Porto
Conference comparison: SEC
The question was whether UEFA would take this tournament seriously or if they would allow other teams to challenge them, and for the most part, UEFA thrived. Nine of the 12 UEFA teams in the tournament made it to the knockout stage, led by Manchester City having the only perfect record in the group stage. Four of the 7 losses suffered by UEFA were to UEFA teams, so they really were able to shine against other confederations. Still, they had their slip-ups, none greater than Porto’s loss to Inter Miami on June 19th. Like the SEC, UEFA has the worldwide bias, they get the most teams in the tournament, and with most of the rest of the world rooting against them, they still put almost all their team through to the playoff.
After all the results stand, here is the Round of 16 by confederation:
AFC - 1 (Al Hilal)
CAF - 0
Concacaf - 2 (Inter Miami, Monterrey)
Conmebol - 4 (Palmeiras, Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense)
Oceania - 0
UEFA - 9 (Benfica, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester City, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund)
The knockout stage begins on June 28th, and the remaining teams will go for the FIFA Club World Cup trophy. Meanwhile, fans from all over the world can continue to argue about which region has the best soccer teams, and in that, soccer and college football will continue to be invariably linked.