Next summer will see Manchester City take part in the revamped FIFA Club World Cup, a competition that world football’s governing body hopes will become a major part of the calendar for the biggest clubs.

The competition, which will take place in the United States in 2025, a year before the World Cup arrives on US soil, has been expanded to include 32 teams from across the UEFA, AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and OFC football federations. It will be played between June 15 and July 13.

City, by virtue of winning the 2023 UEFA Champions League, have qualified for the competition along with Chelsea, winners of the 2021 competition. With only two clubs per nation permitted, no further English clubs will be competing despite some of the UEFA contingent being made up of clubs with the best four-year coefficient.

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For City, the competition offers the chance to swell the coffers with some considerable funds, with The Times reporting that more than £500m could be on offer through prize money, despite some of the challenges that FIFA had been finding in attracting a major broadcaster for the competition that was willing to pay the kind of sums that they wanted to see.

However, how that money will be distributed will be key and could determine just how serious clubs take the competition.

If it is an equal share between 32 teams then that would be £15.6m per team. The biggest clubs will be wanting to see a different split that such an equal share given they are the ones that will attract the global audiences and, in turn, the reasons that broadcasters will pay good money to show the action.

Discussions remain ongoing about how such prize money will be split up, but if an equal share were to be the case then it could mean that clubs such as City, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich choose to send younger squads and host pre-season tours in other countries with some of their first-team stars, thus allowing them to double the revenue during pre-season.

That will be of concern to FIFA, who are wanting this revamped tournament to become a serious part of the football calendar rather than be seen as a needless distraction by the biggest clubs. FIFA needs the big clubs to be onside, which means that City may have some leverage when it comes to trying to get more money from the deal than may already be on the table.

With an already stacked football calendar. there had been some concern voiced from coaches around workload that could be placed upon players, many of whom will have arrived into the tournament on the back of long and gruelling competitive seasons.

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti had suggested during the summer that his side would turn down the opportunity to play in the competition, citing a lack of financial incentive given what could be earned by the club to play elsewhere during the same period.

He told Il Giornale back in June: “Just like us, other clubs will refuse the invitation.

“Players and clubs won't participate in that tournament. One single Real Madrid game is worth €20m, and FIFA want to give us that amount for the entire competition. Negative.”

Real have since confirmed their involvement, but given that some question remains over just how the money will be split, and how valuable it will be for the biggest clubs, the potential for clubs to send across weaker ‘B teams’ while their first-team stars play more lucrative exhibition game elsewhere will be a potential outcome that FIFA will be keen to avoid.

Pre-season tours have become a valuable part of the commercial activities of football clubs and City will likely want to ensure that they are maximising the opportunities that are available to them, especially at a time when they have found themselves stymied in their attempts to bring about major changes to the way that the Premier League’s associated party transactions work, something that would have allowed them to tap into even greater sources of revenue.