The FIFA Club World Cup is considered the ultimate international stage for football clubs. Each year, the champions of the world’s continental confederations compete for global recognition. But for football fans in Wales, a compelling question remains: could a Welsh club ever earn a place in this elite competition?
Qualification: A Steep Climb
To qualify, a club must either win the UEFA Champions League or, under the new format starting in 2025, earn a place based on its historical UEFA ranking. With only a limited number of slots for UEFA teams, the bar is extremely high.
A quick look at the FIFA Club World Cup standings reveals that nearly all qualifying teams come from the continent’s biggest leagues.
For a Welsh club, this path would mean navigating through qualifying rounds, reaching the Champions League group stage, and outperforming the likes of Real Madrid or Manchester City. While not impossible, it’s far beyond the current reach of clubs in the Cymru Premier.
Where Welsh Clubs Stand in UEFA
Welsh clubs have a unique status in European football. Although Wales has its domestic league system, its teams don’t participate directly in the elite stages of UEFA competitions. Instead, the champion of the Cymru Premier begins in the early qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Any realistic shot at global competition begins with understanding the two-phase structure of the Cymru Premier, which splits into a top and bottom half mid-season. This ensures competitiveness and gives every team a chance to push for Europe. Yet the gulf between these clubs and those competing in the Champions League is immense.
Swansea and Cardiff: The Outliers
Two Welsh clubs—Swansea City and Cardiff City—play in the English football system. In theory, if either of these clubs were to win the Premier League or the Champions League, they could qualify for the Club World Cup as a representative of UEFA.
Swansea’s League Cup win in 2013 showed that they can compete at a high level. However, neither team has been in Europe’s top flight in recent years, and a Champions League run would require massive investment and top-tier consistency.
Learning from Global Examples
Smaller clubs have featured at the FIFA Club World Cup, notably Auckland City from New Zealand, which regularly qualified through the Oceania Champions League. Though the standard of play in their domestic league is modest, a direct qualification path made their participation possible.
This stands in contrast to Europe, where even mid-table sides from top leagues are stronger than many domestic champions in smaller nations. Unless UEFA changes its system, clubs from the Cymru Premier remain unlikely to reach the Club World Cup without extraordinary circumstances.
Investment, Culture, and Imagination
For any Welsh club to reach that level, radical development is needed. That includes full professionalism, stronger youth academies, improved facilities, and larger investment in scouting and analytics. Media visibility and cultural support must also increase.
Cultural inspiration can also play a role. Watching the best football film about underdog triumphs might not change a club’s finances, but it can ignite ambition. Building that belief is part of any long-term journey to the top.